Acheson Rebrands Food Safety Solutions

Editor’s Note: Dr. David Acheson is the former FDA Associate Commissioner for Foods and a QA Advisory Board member who has written QA’s Legislative Update section since its inception in 2011. Following his FDA appointment, Dr. Acheson joined Leavitt Partners, initiating Global Food Safety Solutions. In October, Dr. Acheson shifted his experience and expertise to form The Acheson Group. This month’s Legislative Update brings QA readers an exclusive interview with Dr. Acheson on his new venture.

QA: Why did you decide to form The Acheson Group?

Dr. Acheson: The decision was made in recognition that our group was being independently successful and the talents of the team were self-sustaining and attracting businesses, so I worked with Leavitt Partners to buy out the Global Food Safety Solutions portion of the business — which had been operating as an independent business of Leavitt Partners since 2010. By starting The Acheson Group, I feel that we will be able to be more nimble, and move more quickly to make decisions faster, thus better serving our clients. Leavitt Partners’ Health Care business will continue to operate as it always has.

QA: What will change in your work with the food and beverage industry?

Dr. Acheson: Very little at first. Essentially, we are simply moving the team to a new brand, enabling us to continue to grow and improve our services, as we have over the last four years. The food safety solutions team will continue to include Jennifer McEntire who has over 10 years food safety experience, was a senior staff scientist for the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), and holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University; Melanie Naumann, with 15 years of experience in food law, regulatory and recall, and crisis management matters, a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law, and a master’s in food safety from Michigan State University; Anne Sherrod, 14 years of experience in food and dietary supplement manufacturing and a master’s in food safety from Michigan State University; Jackie Bessette, experience as assistant manager of communication and membership development for International Life Sciences Institute and a bachelor’s in communications from George Mason University; and James Acheson, experience as a research analyst and inventory management and HACCP certification.

Each member of our team has deep subject-matter expertise in a specific area, but also can look at things holistically from a high level.

QA: You’ve said that global food supplies, changing consumer expectations, and expanding regulations are creating more risk for the food industry. How can these be addressed?

Dr. Acheson: As the regulatory landscape continues to shift and the industry focuses on preventive action over reaction, it is important that food facilities look at, and find solutions to, risks, both internally—within their four walls, and externally—along their supply chains. Both risk assessment and management are important; most food companies recognize that there is risk in the supply chain—so how do you manage that?

A company cannot dedicate the same resources to all suppliers, whether it has 20 or 2,000, so strategies need to be developed around the inherent risk of the suppliers and the products. Even with a robust strategy, however, companies need to be prepared to manage and respond to a crisis. Along with the possibility of a mistake made within one’s own facility, there is the potential for a supplied good to make it through one’s process to the consumer—and then be told by the supplier that a contaminant was found. These are all areas of increased risk to food companies that need to be managed and solved.

QA: The court has ruled that all proposed FSMA rules must be published by Nov. 30, with final rules in the Federal Register by June 30, 2015. With your experience at both USDA and FDA, what are your thoughts on the viability of this?

Dr. Acheson: I don’t think that FDA’s timeline will be driven too heavily by the courts; instead I expect the agency will work at the pace it sees as needed to develop the best possible regulations. That said, I would think the November comment period deadlines will stick, but it will still take a year for the final rules to be published. Then there will be another 12 months allowed for implementation. So I would expect that companies will need to be in compliance by the end of 2015/early 2016.

There may be some sliding on these dates, but I wouldn’t expect it to change by much. I can also see the next election as being a factor; that the current Administration will want to have FSMA fully implemented while it is in command.

About Dr. David Acheson
Dr. David Acheson has more than 30 years of medical and food safety research/experience. He holds a medical doctorate degree from the University of London Medical School, practiced internal medicine and infectious diseases in the U.K., then became an associate professor at Tufts University in Boston, studying the molecular pathogenesis of foodborne pathogens. Dr. Acheson has served as chief medical officer at the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN); director of CFSAN’s Office of Food Defense, Communication, and Emergency Response; and assistant and associate commissioner for foods at FDA, where he developed the 2007 Food Protection Plan, which was the basis for much of FSMA. He has published extensively and is internationally recognized for his public health expertise in food safety and research in infectious diseases. He serves on boards and food safety advisory groups of several major food manufacturers; is a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London) and the Infectious Disease Society of America; and is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, Institute of Food Technologists, and International Association for Food Protection.