Donald Prater to Be Acting FDA Food Lead, Replace Diamantas (1)

Donald Prater has been selected to lead the FDA’s Human Foods Program as acting deputy commissioner for food, stepping up from his current role as the program’s principal deputy associate commissioner, according to two senior agency officials.

Prater is set to replace Kyle Diamantas as the Food and Drug Administration’s top food official after Diamantas became the agency’s acting chief on Tuesday. His selection hasn’t been publicly announced because the White House is first completing paperwork to formalize Diamantas’ new position, according to one of the officials. Both officials were granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. President Donald Trump is currently on a diplomatic trip in China.

The leadership shuffle follows former FDA Commissioner Marty Makary’s resignation amid scrutiny over his decision making involving flavored vapes, drug approvals, and reports Trump planned to fire him.

Prater will step into a familiar role leading the agency’s food mission, having served as the acting director of what was then called the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition from June 2023 to October 2024.

Prater helped “re-envision” the agency’s food operations, according to his agency bio, in the lead up to a major restructuring in 2024 that established the FDA’s Human Foods Program, which was designed to address concerns the agency wasn’t doing enough to protect consumers. Regulators at FDA came under fire from critics who said its slow response to a recall of contaminated infant formula contributed to a 2022 nation-wide product shortage.

Prater has spent more than 26 years at the FDA, according to LinkedIn.

“FDA does not comment on personnel matters,” Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hilliard said in an email.

Neither the White House nor Prater immediately responded to a request for comment.