SAFE FOOD Act Kicks Off Study to Merge Federal Food Safety Agencies Within 60 Days

The SAFE FOOD Act of 2025 is setting the stage for a potential administrative shakeup by mandating a comprehensive study on consolidating the federal government’s numerous food safety agencies into a single entity. Essentially, Congress wants to know if having one big boss for food safety—instead of several—would make the system more efficient.

The Administrative Deep Dive: Who’s Doing What?

This section (Sec. 2) is purely procedural, but it’s the first step toward a massive reorganization. It directs the Secretary of Agriculture to launch this study within just 60 days of the law being enacted. Think of it as opening a huge project management file on the federal food safety system. The goal isn't to start merging agencies right away, but to figure out if it’s even a good idea.

What It Means for the Everyday Person

When we talk about food safety, we’re talking about everything from the lettuce in your salad to the steak on your grill. Currently, oversight is split between agencies like the USDA (mostly meat and poultry) and the FDA (mostly everything else). This fragmentation can lead to confusing rules, overlapping inspections, and sometimes, slower responses during a foodborne illness outbreak.

If the study finds that consolidation makes sense, the potential benefit is a clearer, faster, and more effective system that could, in theory, improve public health and streamline regulatory burdens for farmers and food manufacturers. For consumers, this could mean more trust in the food supply chain and perhaps fewer recalls or outbreaks due to clearer lines of authority.

The One-Year Clock and the Human Cost

The Secretary of Agriculture has one year from the law’s enactment date to deliver a full report to Congress. This report must include the study’s findings and, crucially, specific recommendations on whether the agencies should actually merge. This is where the rubber meets the road: the Secretary gets to be the gatekeeper for recommending the next big move.

While this is a purely administrative study, it immediately creates uncertainty for the thousands of federal employees working in food safety across different agencies. If consolidation is recommended, it means job descriptions, reporting structures, and even entire office locations could change. For these workers, the next year will be spent waiting to see if their agency is marked for a full organizational redesign. It’s a necessary step toward efficiency, but it introduces a year of organizational stress for the people who keep our food safe.