Minnesota Food Protection Rapid Response Team and Program Capacity Building Project

Minnesota State Dept Of Agriculture, St Paul MN

Investigators

Abstract

Project Abstract The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office of Partnerships (OP), in collaboration with the Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine (OFVM), is announcing the availability of up to nine cooperative agreements to be awarded under a Limited Competition. These cooperative agreements are intended to maintain and sustain multi- jurisdictional Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) that operate using Incident Command System (ICS)/National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles and a Unified Command structure to strengthen the collaboration among epidemiology, laboratory and environmental health/regulatory activities and support integrated all-hazards preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery/prevention efforts for food/feed within the national integrated food safety system. As a recipient of funding under RFA-FD-13-006, MDA is eligible to apply for this Cooperative Agreement. The funding provided under the previous Cooperative Agreement has been used to further develop significant response capacity related to foodborne illness outbreaks and other food safety events and has also been used to develop a detailed Improvement Plan for the FDA Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). Continuation of this funding will address the Objectives and Deliverables detailed in this application. The Minnesota RRT is a partnership among the MDA, Minnesota Department of Health, FDA Minneapolis District Office, and local health partners and has current expertise in epidemiology; traceback and trace forward investigations; recalls; food microbiology and chemistry analysis; human clinical laboratory analysis, including PFGE and whole genome sequencing (WGS) capability; animal health/veterinary medicine; environmental assessments in processing facilities, dairy farms, and egg farms; and program-specific expertise in food, feed, meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy. Minnesota will continue to meet the 6 Program Objectives by using criteria developed under the RRT 5 Year Plan and the Capacity Building and Mentorship Program to meet key milestones in each of these six program areas. MDA will also continue to develop, train and implement a food protection RRT that incorporates ICS concepts and contribute to a national framework of RRT best practices through the RRT Best Practices Manual, multi-agency exercises, and other collaborative projects.