Continuing to support the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) National Curriculum Standard (NCS) through course development; delivery; and ongoing evaluation

AFDO Application for RFA-FD-20-024 - PROJECT SUMMARYThe Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) proposes to collaborate with FDA/OTEDand national food safety training partners to establish a coordinated effort for expansion anddevelopment of the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) National Curriculum Standard (NCS),including continued development of human and animal food (including Retail Food,Manufactured Food, Animal Food, Produce, Milk, Laboratory, and Shellfish) competency andcurriculum frameworks, further development and validation of human and animal foodcompetency statements and behavioral anchors, and updates to and development of humanand animal food training courses to meet the needs of state and local food regulatory agencies,which is required for a successful, national IFSS. The end goal of this proposed project is tosignificantly increase training opportunities for human and animal food regulatory agencies,leading to long term improvements in the knowledge, skills, and abilities of regulators as part ofan IFSS.AFDO will recruit human and animal food subject matter experts (SMEs) to create a pool ofqualified candidates who can assist in the development of curriculums, frameworks,competencies, and courses. AFDO will also assist with the instructor qualification process forcourse delivery and to assure that all SMEs who will deliver United States Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) human and animal food courses will first complete instructor skills training(ISTs) and demonstrate their training capabilities through the satisfactory completion of coursespecific instructor training (CSIT) or an audit assessment conducted during the pilot testing oftraining courses or programs developed.Achieving all project objectives will require extensive cooperation and coordination betweentraining partners. AFDO will build upon its existing broad network of resources, including itscommunity of federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal entities built over more than 120 years ofthe association?s existence and experience. The outcomes of this project will be theadvancement of a national IFSS through the establishment of a well-coordinated NCS, anincrease in the number of quality human and animal food courses available to regulators, andan increase in the number and quality of trained and vetted SME trainers.