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Dr. Tanner serves as the Executive Vice President of Science for Food Research, Inc. He joined Food Research in 1999, after 30 years of service with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington, DC. At FDA he contributed to three major regulations under the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act (NLEA), the Infant Formula Act, and the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). Dr. Tanner started at the FDA as a Research Chemist, dealing with food composition, trace and toxic elements, and radioactivity in foods. After he was promoted to Chief of the Nutrient Surveillance Branch, Dr. Tanner was responsible for determining compliance with nutrition labeling regulations. During his tenure, the Infant Formula Act was passed, whereupon he worked with infant formula companies and other laboratories to identify and collaboratively study methods for the analysis of infant formula. This work resulted in two awards from the Association of Official Analytic Chemists (AOAC) and several papers in scientific literature. Dr. Tanner was also responsible for the development of policy and a manual for the treatment and acceptance of databases for food labeling which conformed with the requirements of the NLEA.
After FDA reorganized, Dr. Tanner served as Special Assistant to the Director of the Office of Special Nutritionals, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. In that position, he contributed to policy dealing with infant formula, medical foods and dietary supplements. Later, he served as Acting Director of the Division of Science and Technology and Acting Director of the Division of Programs and Enforcement Policy, dealing with regulation of the DSHEA in the Office of Special Nutritionals. Dr. Tanner is recognized as a leading expert in trace element analysis, food irradiation, food composition, and regulatory issues dealing with foods and dietary supplements.
Prior to his service at FDA, Dr. Tanner was educated at the University of Kentucky, obtaining his Ph.D. in Chemistry. He then accepted a postdoctoral appointment at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, which later became Carnegie-Mellon University. He next served as a Lecturer in Chemistry at Carnegie-Mellon University. While at Carnegie-Mellon University, Dr. Tanner was an investigator for NASA. He researched and studied lunar samples and participated in the investigation of trace element abundances in meteorites.
Dr. Tanner has many awards and has written approximately 75 papers for peer reviewed journals. Based on his scientific contributions, Dr. Tanner has been elected a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society (ANS), a Fellow of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC), a Fellow of the Meteoritical Society, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Tanner is a North American Editor for the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, serves on the Board of Directors for Food Testing and Analysis magazine and authored a column for several years entitled “Ask the Regulators.” He also served on the Editorial Advisory Committee of Inside Laboratory Management from its inception until he retired from FDA. Dr. Tanner also served as a consultant for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He participated in several programs with the IAEA in order to determine dietary intake in third world countries. Dr. Tanner is a recognized expert on foods and dietary supplements.
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