Veterinarian Donald Prater, the FDA’s deputy associate commissioner for human foods, will become the acting commissioner for the food side of the agency, according to news reports.
The move to bump up Prater to the acting post comes after the selection of Kyle Diamantas to the be the acting Food and Drug Administration’s top official. Diamantas was tapped for the top acting post for the FDA after Administrator Marty Makary resigned from the post earlier this week.
Makary’s departure came following two key dust ups with the Trump Administration; one involving his failure to push for the restriction of medication for abortions and the other for his failure to approve fruit-flavored vaping products.
According to Bloomberg Business, Prater’s selection to temporarily lead the food side of FDA operations has not been publicly announced because the White House is first completing paperwork to formalize Diamantas’ new position.
Prater previously served as the FDA’s principal deputy associate commissioner for food, a role he had held since 2024. He served as acting director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in 2023.
Other previous roles include associate commissioner for imported food safety in FDA’s Office of Food Policy and Response. He also served as a senior scientific advisor and technical expert on matters related to human and animal food safety and the implementation of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
Earlier in his FDA tenure, Prater was director of the FDA’s Europe office in Brussels, Belgium, and the Department of Health and Human Services country representative to the European Union.
Prater received a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine in 1996. Following a three-year residency in anatomic pathology, he joined the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM) in 1999 as a Veterinary Medical Officer. There, he served in several roles, including leader of the aquaculture drugs team, CVM pathologist and director of the Division of Scientific Support.
Prater has spent more than 26 years at the FDA, according to LinkedIn.
