BUILDING AND SUSTAINING WISCONSIN?S RAPID RESPONSE TEAM (RRT); AND MANUFACTURED FOOD REGULATORY PROGRAM STANDARDS (MFRPS) CONFORMANCE; MFRPS SPECIAL PROJECTS AND A FOOD PROTECTION TASK FORCE

Project AbstractWisconsin?s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) requests $640,000 for eachof the next five years, to maintain and enhance MFRPS conformance, build and maintain a Rapid ResponseTeam (RRT), carry out Mutual Reliance practices and projects, and create a Food Protection Task Force.The efforts undertaken as part of this Cooperative Agreement will further increase the capacity of Wisconsin?sfood safety regulatory program to protect public health and safeguard the food supply. The US Food andDrug Administration (FDA) developed the MFRPS program as a tool to promote uniformity and cooperationamong federal, state and local agencies responsible for regulating manufactured food establishments.Developing Wisconsin?s RRT will enhance Wisconsin?s ability to detect, respond and abate human and animalfood emergencies through a coordinated response utilizing the Incident Command System as anorganizational structure. Wisconsin views the RRT as an essential component of a nationally integrated foodsafety regulatory system. The framework provided by the RRT will allow Wisconsin to establish a coordinatedresponse program to reduce hazards in human and animal food firms and markets.The Bureau of Food and Recreational Businesses first enrolled in the MFRPS program in 2007 as one of fivestates to pilot the standards. The Bureau completed an initial baseline assessment, developed a strategicimprovement plan, and participated in an FDA Program Assessment Validation Audit (PAVA). In 2012 theBureau participated in its 36-month PAVA, and at its 60-month audit in 2014, Wisconsin was found in fullconformance with all 10 Standards (2013 version). In 2016, at the 84-month audit, FDA auditors found roomfor improvement in Standard 2, training records. Since then the Bureau has implemented the additionalrequirements of the 2016 MFRPS and self-assesses as in full implementation. An integrated food safety systemwill promote consistent application of regulations and effective communication between federal, state andlocal partners. Wisconsin has been a voluntary (unfunded) RRT since April 2015.This five--year cooperative agreement will allow Wisconsin to continue its efforts to implement its strategicimprovement plan to achieve, maintain and enhance full-conformance with the standards, become a fully-functioning RRT state, continue processes of integration and mutual reliance, and meaningfully involveindustry in efforts to operationalize an improved risk-categorization of our establishment inventory andcorresponding license fee structure. All project goals, milestones, objectives and required deliverables for thefour components of this cooperative agreement have been incorporated into its Strategic Improvement Plan.Highlights of planned activities include: ? Maintaining and expanding our quality assurance system to include mutual reliance activities and evaluation of RRT responses. ? Improving information management, document control and record-keeping by implementing document control procedures via SharePoint, improved mechanisms for mutual reliance data exchange and better reporting and tracking training, particularly field training. ? Incorporating an improved risk categorization into our inspections and licensing system and gaining industry support for license fees commensurate with risk, thereby securing more resources for ourprogramIn addition, Wisconsin will actively participate in MFRPS and RRT meetings, training, and audits to shareinformation with other regulatory agencies.