October 29, 2010

US FDA awards US$18.5 million grants for food and feed safety

The US FDA awarded 84 grants worth US$18.5 million in FY 2010 to help state and local regulatory agencies defend against and respond quickly to threats to the food supply and to outbreaks of foodborne diseases.

The grants fund major cooperative agreements in four major areas: response, intervention, innovation, and prevention.

"We are excited to award these grants in an effort to provide greater food and feed safety and defense capabilities to better serve the citizens of the US. These cooperative agreements are another step in the FDA's continuing efforts to build an integrated food safety system between federal, state, and local partners," said Joseph Reardon, director of the FDA's Division of Federal-State Relations.

The Food Protection Rapid Response Team (RRT) and Program Infrastructure Improvement Prototype Project cooperative agreements will develop, implement, exercise, and integrate an all-hazards food and foodborne illness response capability to more rapidly react to potential threats to our food supply.

The RRT, designed to operate in conjunction with other food and feed agencies within state programmes, other state RRTs,

FDA district offices, and state emergency operations centres, is another tool to enhance response capabilities.

An RRT responds to food hazard incidents through the entire production and delivery process, from farm to table, using a formal crisis management system. Each recipient received up to US$500,000 to exercise its response team, conduct a programme assessment, purchase additional equipment and supplies, fund personnel, and train and share information and data as appropriate.

The following states were funded in the 2010 fiscal year: Virginia, Texas, Minnesota, North Carolina, California, Florida, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Washington.

The grants for Food Safety and Security Monitoring provide funding to Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) laboratories. FERN laboratories provide additional capacity for analysing food samples in the event of foodborne disease outbreaks or other large scale food emergency events. These samples could be foods and/or environmental samples related to foods, and will be collected by federal, state, or local agencies.

Determinations regarding the numbers of samples and the scheduling of samples will be made by the FERN National Program Office in coordination with state/local laboratory authorities. Federal or state surveillance assignments will also be a source of samples for lab analysis. Selected laboratories received up to US$400,000 in grant funds. The grants are for microbiological, chemical, or radiological analysis capacity.