Building Institutional Capacity For Assisting Producers and Processors in The New Food Safety Regulatory Landscape

This pilot project is an extension and education approach to further build the capacity in our institution by: (1) Providing FSMA lead instructor training for faculties and certification workshops for extension agents (2) Conducting need assessment surveys with small producers and processors and thereafter development of two curricula for beginners and advanced small and socioeconomically disadvantaged producers and processors (3) A multi-day planning meeting for collaborators and stakeholders engagement and discussing the plans for enhanced continuation of the project and FSMA outreach and technical assistance. In order to avoid duplication of endeavors, our proposed project will be conducted in close harmony and communication with FSMA regional and national training centers. With extensive expansion of county operations in recent years, Tennessee State University is uniquely positioned to serve niche and hard-to-reach audiences.