Designing a VNRFRPS Funding System in Support of a National IFSS

The Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) proposes to design a Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) funding system in support of a national integrated food safety system (IFSS). Project Goals include assisting state, local, tribal and territorial retail food regulatory programs to achieve greater conformance with the VNRFRPS, facilitating the sharing of successful strategies with other stakeholders through an IFSS website, and supporting implementation of proven and innovative intervention strategies to reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors. These goals will be accomplished by establishing a joint advisory group that includes members from AFDO, FDA and other national organizations and associations represented by the Council of Association Presidents (CAP), whose outreach capacity extends to virtually all state and local public health officials. The joint advisory group will develop, implement, and manage a funding system that fairly and broadly distributes subawards to state, local, tribal and territorial retail food regulatory programs, for completion of projects and training to enhance conformance with the VNRFRPS. Achieving project goals and objectives will lead to advancement of an IFSS through the financial and programmatic support of innovative VNRFRPS projects, and through enhanced sharing of successful strategies among food regulatory partners at all levels. We further expect the project to promote goodwill between FDA Regional Retail Food Specialists and other FDA staff, and State, local, tribal and territorial staff members through joint participation in a simple and straightforward funding process that distributes project funding broadly and fairly, and offers excellent technical assistance. Ultimately, the safety, security, and defense of the United States food supply will improve through the completion of this project.