A new book, “Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions,” gives readers a look behind the closed doors of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and discusses how new technologies could improve food safety for consumers.

“The demand for meat is probably going to double by 2050 because of two things: the population will just keep increasing and people are going to be richer and when people are wealthier, they demand more protein,” the book’s author, Richard Williams, Ph.D., told WATTPoultry. “It’s going to be difficult to continue to produce animal protein in the same way that we’ve done in the past.”

Williams worked for the FDA from 1980 to 2007, finally serving as the Director for Social Science with the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. 

After leaving FDA, he was the Vice President for Policy Research at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He has also been on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Board Chairman for the Center for Truth in Science and board member of the Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences.  

“Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions” explores the inner workings of the FDA that drove failed strategies and manipulated science and economics to support regulations that miss the mark on food safety.

New technologies for a healthier future

The FDA should abandon their previous approaches and instead think outside of the box by embracing new technologies and practices that can bring about a safer and healthier future for Americans, Williams argues.

Robotics, 3D printing, genetic engineering, precision fermentation, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, microbiome research, big data and blockchain all show tremendous promise for improving food safety. Williams also believes that personalized nutrition – based on a someone’s genetics or microbiome – could help reduce the amount of obesity seen in consumers.

“Fixing Food: An FDA Insider Unravels the Myths and the Solutions” will be available for purchase at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, IndieBound and Bookshop.org on October 26, 2021. For more information, go to www.richardawilliams.com.