Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement,

and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore.

Our goal is to bring evidence and experience

to illuminate critical public health issues. If you have questions or ideas for us, please

send an email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. That's public health question at jhut.edu for

future podcast episodes. Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith-Rogers, producer of Public Health On Call.

Today, the podcast turns to food safety.

Recent reports have raised questions about the FDA's oversight of food safety,

even after a law passed in 2010, was supposed to go a long way towards making food safer.

Dr. Josh Sharfstein speaks with Howard Sklamberg, an attorney with the law firm of Arnold

and Porter, and a former deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

After recording this episode, Dr. Sharfstein called Sclamberg back to ask about the recall

of infant formula, and we've added that conversation at the end.

Let's listen.

Howard Sclamberg, thanks so much for joining me on public health on call.

Our topic is food safety, which comes into the news usually every couple of years because of an

outbreak. There is a outbreak that happened in an infant formula plant recently.

And there's also been some reporting about weaknesses in the food safety system. So thanks,

thanks for coming. Thank you for having me. Now, you have played a big role at FDA, the Food and Drug

Administration, including a role that has important responsibilities for

food safety. So I just wanted to start by asking you to describe the U.S. food safety system.

...