Enhancing the Capability and Capacity of Human and Animal Food Testing Laboratories within West Virginia under the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model

West Virginia Department of Agriculture
Laboratory Flexible Funding Model
PAR-20-105
Abstract- Overall
Food surveillance testing is an integral part of protecting consumers and the nation’s
food supply. In order to detect and remove contaminated food from the supply chain, it is
important for agricultural agencies to be able to quickly and accurately test for a wide variety of
pathogens. The proposed project will increase the overall testing capabilities and capacities of
food testing in West Virginia. This mitigation will directly decrease the risk of contaminated foods
from reaching endpoint consumers.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) will specifically aim to enhance the
capability and capacity of WV’s human and animal food testing laboratories in support of an
integrated food safety system. The WVDA will provide enhanced sample collections and test
offerings in the fields of microbiology and chemistry that are ISO accredited and accepted by the
FDA. The WVDA will also develop special projects that will support and expand related testing.
The WVDA also aims to strengthen and improve the collaboration of surveillance activities
between the FDA and other laboratory partners.
The West Virginia Department of Agriculture serves as the primary regulatory agency for
human and animal food product testing and is also the primary regulatory agency for the testing
of manufactured foods (MFRPS) and animal food (AFRPS) in WV.
The laboratories have 18 methods that are ISO 17025 accredited. The agency has been
an active member of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) since 2005. The
laboratories have completed method development, single and multi-laboratory method
validations, and surveillance activities for FERN. The WVDA actively conducts analysis of foods
for microbiology and chemistry food defense purposes as well.
The WVDA has demonstrated that with the infrastructure and experience of personnel,
the facility, ISO accreditation, research projects, method developments, and on-going
surveillance projects that it is committed to completing the objectives of this track. This project
will enhance the human food surveillance capability and capacity of the WVDA and help support
an integrated food safety system by strengthening cooperation with the FDA.