Who Keeps Food, Medicine, and Products Safe
Key takeaways
- The FDA oversees most food, drugs, medical devices, and cosmetics, the USDA inspects meat, poultry, and processed eggs, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission covers household goods.
- New drugs must be proven safe and effective in clinical trials before sale, and the FDA approves roughly 50 novel drugs a year.
- Dietary supplements need no FDA approval before sale under a 1994 law, and the FDA must show a product is unsafe to remove it.
- Most recalls are voluntary, though agencies can order recalls of food, cosmetics, vehicles, and some other products.
- The CDC tracks foodborne illness outbreaks and helps trace them to their source.
- In 2025 the FDA lost many staff and senior leaders, changed some vaccine policies, and moved against certain food additives, changes supporters praised and critics warned about.
Every day Americans eat, take, and use products that federal agencies have inspected, approved, or set rules for. The work is divided among several agencies whose responsibilities were assigned at different times, sometimes in odd ways: the FDA oversees cheese pizza, while the Agriculture Department inspects pepperoni pizza.
This guide explains who is responsible for what, how new medicines are approved, how food and supplements are regulated, how recalls work, and the debates over regulatory speed and independence.
The Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 shifted the FDA from reacting to outbreaks toward preventing them, requiring food companies to plan for hazards and giving the agency power to order recalls. USDA inspectors are present in every meat and poultry plant, while the FDA inspects other food facilities far less often. The CDC estimates that foodborne illness sickens about 48 million Americans a year. In 2025 federal officials announced plans to phase out petroleum-based food dyes, moved to tighten the system that lets companies declare ingredients generally recognized as safe without FDA review, and put new emphasis on ultraprocessed foods.
Under a 1994 law, vitamins, herbal products, and other dietary supplements may be sold without FDA approval or proof that they work, though they may not claim to cure disease and must follow manufacturing standards. The FDA must show a supplement is unsafe before removing it, as it did with ephedra in 2004. Cosmetics were lightly regulated until the Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022 required companies to register facilities, list products, report serious reactions, and accept FDA recall orders. The Federal Trade Commission polices advertising for both.
Before a new drug can be sold, its maker must show in laboratory and animal studies and then in three phases of human trials that it is safe and effective. The FDA reviews the results, often with advice from outside experts, and under user fee agreements aims to decide standard applications in about ten months and priority ones in about six. Fast-track programs let some drugs for serious conditions reach patients sooner, and generic drugs can be approved once patents expire by showing they match the original. After approval, companies must report side effects, and the FDA can add warnings or seek withdrawal. Roughly 50 novel drugs are approved a year.
When a product turns out to be dangerous, the responsible agency works with the maker to pull it from the market. Most recalls are voluntary, but agencies can order recalls of food, cosmetics, vehicles, and some other products and can sue when companies refuse. Vehicle owners get free repairs for safety defects, and the recall of Takata air bags, which began in 2013, became the largest in history. Recalls are posted at recalls.gov. Consumer advocates say too many recalled products stay in homes and that penalties are weak, while industry says companies generally act quickly.
Patient groups and drug makers often push for faster approvals and fewer barriers, while consumer and medical groups warn that speed can let unsafe or ineffective products through. User fees from industry fund much of the FDA's drug review work, which supporters say speeds approvals and critics say creates dependence on the industry being regulated. In 2025 the FDA lost many staff and most of its senior leaders, the administration changed vaccine advisory panels and recommendations, and the President removed three commissioners at the CPSC, steps supporters called overdue reform and critics called a politicization of science and safety.
The Food and Drug Administration, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, regulates about a fifth of everything Americans spend money on: most food, prescription and over-the-counter drugs, vaccines, medical devices, cosmetics, and tobacco. The Agriculture Department inspects meat, poultry, and processed eggs. The Consumer Product Safety Commission covers household and recreational products, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration vehicles, the Environmental Protection Agency pesticides, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration hazards at work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks outbreaks, and states inspect restaurants and many food businesses.
See the department behind most of these agencies in the fifteen Cabinet departments, how their rules are written in how federal regulations are made, or the commissions behind the CPSC in the regulatory commissions.