Development of Strategies to Achieve and Maintain Compliance with the VNRFRPS

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seekingfunding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-20-012 to developstrategies to achieve and maintain conformance with the Voluntary National Retail FoodRegulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS). The amount of funding requested is $70,000.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office ofPartnerships (OP) is announcing the availability of cooperative agreements to be awardedunder Limited Competition. This opportunity is only available to State, local, territorial, or tribalretail food regulatory programs with primary regulatory responsibility for retail foodestablishments that are currently enrolled in the VNRFRPS and have completed a current self-assessment against the Retail Program Standards as required by Standard 9. The VDACS Office of Dairy & Foods, Food Safety Program meets all requirements to beeligible for this funding. The program serves as one of the state?s primary retail food regulatoryprograms and is currently enrolled in the VNRFRPS. The program?s last self-assessmentagainst the Retail Program Standards as required by Standard 9 was completed on August 23,2016. The Program has had verification audits showing the following Standards are met:Standard 2 ? Trained Regulatory Staff, 3 ? Inspection Program Based on HACCP Principles,Standard 5 ?Foodborne Illness and Food Defense Preparedness and Response and Standard 7? Industry and Community Relations. Funding provided by the RFA will be utilized to continue the program?s conformance withthe VNRFRPS by implementing procedures that promote active managerial control of the riskfactors most commonly associated with foodborne illness in food establishments. Specifically,the funding will be used to pay for time for the Regional Manager, Food Technical Specialist,and one Food Safety Specialist to meet the deliverables of the grant; for travel costs for all FoodSafety Program staff to attend a retail food training; for travel costs associated with training ofnew hires; for printing copies of the updated regulations; and for printing and mailing anewsletter outlining the changes in the regulations. This would continue the Program?s progresswith meeting Standard 1 ? Regulatory Foundation, Standard 4 ? Uniform Inspection Program,and Standard 6 - Compliance and Enforcement. It would also allow the Program to continue tomaintain conformance with Standard 2 ? Trained Regulatory Staff, Standard 3 ? InspectionProgram Based on HACCP Principles, and Standard 7 ? Industry and Community Relations.