By Kelly Cloonan

The Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health will work together on a nutrition research program to support Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again campaign.

Under the Nutrition Regulatory Science Program, the FDA and NIH will develop a nutrition research agenda to inform effective policy decisions when it comes to food and nutrition, the agencies said Friday.

The goal of the program is to help make Americans' foods and diets healthier to attack the rise in diet-related chronic disease, the agencies said.

The program will promote "the radical transparency Americans deserve about the foods they are eating and how those foods can impact their health," the agencies said. It aims to clarify the affects from ultra-processed foods, food additives and maternal and infant dietary exposures, among others, the agencies said.

The FDA will provide expertise in regulatory science, while the NIH will provide the infrastructure for the solicitation, review and management of the research, the agencies said.

"The FDA is focusing resources on the greatest contributors to the staggering health care crisis: chronic diseases," FDA Commissioner Martin Makary said. The program mirrors the FDA and NIH's Tobacco Regulatory Science Program, gathering scientific expertise from both agencies, he said.

The initiative will involve experts in areas including chronic disease, nutrition, toxicology, risk analysis and behavioral science, the agencies said.

Write to Kelly Cloonan at kelly.cloonan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 09, 2025 16:15 ET (20:15 GMT)

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