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Less than two months after an outside group offered a scathing indictment of the Food and Drug Administration’s structure and culture and recommended major restructuring, the agency’s top food safety official resigned, citing shortcomings in the FDA’s ability to handle foodborne illness crises, including the recent baby formula shortage. Frank Yiannas, the deputy commissioner for the office of food policy and response, will leave his post next month, he wrote to FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf on Wednesday. “The decentralized structure of the foods program that you and I both inherited significantly impaired FDA’s ability to operate as an integrated food team and protect the public,” Yiannas wrote in the letter obtained by The Washington Post. (Reiley and Bogage, 1/25)

Frank Yiannas’ notice comes less than a week before FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf is expected to release a response to a scathing report calling for an overhaul of the way the agency regulates human and animal foods. Currently, no single official has full oversight of FDA’s sprawling food operations. Yiannas called for the appointment of a “fully empowered and experienced” deputy commissioner for foods, with direct oversight of those issues. Advocacy groups and several former FDA officials have also called for such a position. (Aleccia, 1/26)

Since December of 2018, Yiannas has been involved in the development and rollout of policies related to food safety, including response to outbreaks, tracing foodborne illness investigations, product recalls and supply chain innovation. ... In a statement, the FDA lauded Yiannas for his service on the agency’s leadership team, saying his efforts to tackle key initiatives helped “create a safer and more digital, traceable food system for our country.” (Richards, 1/25)

A national research firm has compiled data from health professionals, benefits experts and federal and state resources that indicates the baby formula shortage remains in Mississippi. Over 68% of households in Mississippi with an infant under the age of one reported difficulty obtaining baby formula in December of 2022, according to a study from HelpAdvisor.com. (1/24)

David Brown, a father of four and owner of Kid to Kid in Palm Beach Gardens, is doing his part to help with his store serving as a free formula exchange site of sorts for the better part of the year. “The formula, it comes and it goes,” he said. “We don’t post what we have online, it is more word of mouth.” People drop off formula they aren’t using. (1/25)