Food and Drug Administration PAR-09-123 Grant Application for Washington State's DE

<p>Summary: This application package is submitted to the FDA for consideration of renewal of the existing FDA grant 1R13FD003344-01. The grant is currently on a no cost extension which expires 9/29/2010. If approved, this year's grant renewal application will be used following the expiration of the existing no cost extension. The no cost extension grant dollars will be used as discussed in the extension request submitted August 4, 2009.The renewal request dollars will be used to fund or augment funding of six conferences in Washington State in the late 2010/early-mid 2011 timeframe. The first two conferences are for the Food Protection Task Force. One will be held in Seattle and the second one will be held in Tacoma. Each conference is expected to have approximately 35 attendees. This year's conferences will focus on building upon the Rapid Response Team's efforts to reach out and work with other Food Safety agencies in Washington State. In addition to the governmental agencies, groups from industry and academia will also be invited to the conferences. Additional goals of the conferences will be to provide training that helps improve food safety, developing an ongoing dialog with Food Safety stakeholders across the state of Washington, and working with other stakeholders on developing a team approach to recall efforts and food trace-backs. Funds expended for this conference will be used for facility rental, morning and afternoon snacks, and conference publications and proceedings documents. The second set of conferences will be held in cooperation with the Washington State Department of Health, Food Safety Program. Both conferences will be held in Kent. Approximately 20 State and Local Health Agency staff usually attends this conference. Support of this group is consistent with the WSDA's goal of team building for improvement of cooperation between State and local partners on food recalls and foodtrace-back/trace-forward efforts. Funds expended for this conference will support the attendance of two remote local health jurisdiction Food Safety Specialists, morning and afternoon snacks, and conference publications and proceedings documents. The third set of conferences are related to the Washington State dairy industry stakeholder group. Both conferences will be held in Seattle. Each conference is expected to have up to 20 attendees. The group is primarily composed of industry representatives with a few government officials in attendance from the Washington State Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Funds expended for this conference will be used for facility rental, morning and afternoon snacks, and conference publications and proceedings documents.</p>