About the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, known as CFSAN, is one of six product-oriented centers, in addition to a nationwide field force, that carry out the mission of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). FDA is a scientific regulatory agency responsible for the safety of the nation's domestically produced and imported foods, cosmetics, drugs, biologics, medical devices, and radiological products.

The Center has over 800 employees, who range from secretaries and other support staff to highly specialized professionals--such as chemists, microbiologists, toxicologists, food technologists, pathologists, molecular biologists, pharmacologists, nutritionists, epidemiologists, mathematicians, and sanitarians.

The Center provides services to consumers, domestic and foreign industry and other outside groups regarding field programs; agency administrative tasks; scientific analysis and support; and policy, planning and handling of critical issues related to food and cosmetics. Most Center staff members work in the Center's headquarters in College Park, Maryland. The Center also operates research facilities in Laurel, Maryland and in Dauphin Island, Alabama. Other locations include the Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Maryland and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology near Chicago, Illinois.