Skip to Content
Network for Public Health Law
Webinars Food Safety and SecurityPublic Health Authority

Keeping up with the Changes: Federal Food Policy Shifts and the Impact on State and Local Public Health Agencies

by Kathleen Hoke

Overview

November 19, 2026 | 12:00 – 1:30 p.m. CT

Join food safety experts for a webinar detailing recent changes to federal food safety policy; the likely impact on foodborne illness outbreaks; efforts to educate state and local policymakers on effective regulation of chemicals in our foods; and potential efforts at federal preemption. Hear from local public health leaders responsible for keeping their communities safe from and aware of foodborne illness outbreaks in the shadow of shifting federal regulatory changes. There will be ample time for audience engagement through a question-and-answer session.


REGISTER

Moderator

  • Kathleen Hoke, J.D., Senior Advisor, Network for Public Health Law and Professor, University of Maryland Carey School of Law

Presenters:

  • David Love, Research Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Center for a Livable Future will explain in broad terms the traditional role of the federal government in the food safety space to set up his explanation of the changes the current federal administration has made and has suggested it may make (including Congress) that impact food safety. David will touch on any innovative policies states have considered or that we can expect to see in the 2027 cycle in response to the federal changes.
  • Sarah Sorscher, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) will discuss food chemical and food pathogen safety. She and others at CSPI are working to educate state and local policymakers about the current push for food chemical safety/additives approval reforms at the state level, as well as the emerging threat of federal preemption in this space, which impacts state and local food regulation more generally.
  • Sarah Jensen, Director of Environmental Health, and Miller Sullivan, Medical Director, Frankin County, Ohio, Public Health will focus on the local public health perspective—including experience with tracking, tracing, and preventing foodborne illness, lessons from Cyclospora and other recent outbreaks, and the local impact of changes to FoodNet and federal reporting requirements from the administrative and clinical perspective.