Source: FOOD SAFETY NEWS, 9/25/17

If Carmen Rottenberg and Paul Kiecker are feeling just a bit like Lucy and Charlie Brown, it’s understandable. During the first month of holding down USDA’s top two food safety jobs on an acting basis, Rottenberg and Kiecker have taken 19 meetings with people outside the federal government. By taking on the jobs of USDA’s acting deputy undersecretary for food safety and administrator of Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), Rottenberg and Kiecker, respectively, attracted a line as long as Lucy had when she put our her shingle. Rottenberg and Kiecker were both named to succeed longtime FSIS boss Al Almanza, who was acting deputy undersecretary for food safety and FSIS administrator. He retired on July 31 after three decades at FSIS to take over food safety at meat producer JBS USA. Rottenberg, who took her first meeting as acting deputy undersecretary for food safety on Aug. 11, with Oscar Garrison, vice president for food safety and regulatory affairs, with United Egg Producers and the United Egg Association. Eggs in the Netherlands was the topic, which was likely about the recall over chemical use in Dutch henhouses. Rottenberg and Kiecker joined forces for five meetings on Aug. 16 and 17. Their first was with Thomas Gremillion, director of food policy for the Consumer Federation of America. James Sumner, president of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council was up next. The discussion involved scheduling “challenges” involving Iraq’s audit of the U.S. … USDA’s new catfish inspection program was the subject of the last four meetings in the month, on Aug. 30 and 31. One was with staff from Florida’s Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and another was with North Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler. …

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