FUNDING FOR THE VIRGINIA MANUFACTURED FOOD REGULATORY FOOD PROGRAM TO ACHIEVE AND MAINTAIN CONFORMANCE WITH MFRPS AND TO SUSTAIN FOOD/FEED RESPONSE CAPABILITIES OF THE VIRGINIA RAPID RESPONSE TEAM.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking funding from the U.S.Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to support the infrastructure maintenance ofVirginia?s Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards project. The VDACS Food Safety Programmeets all eligibility requirements for this funding and has a current food safety inspection contract withthe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The amount of funding requested is $225,000 per year.Utilizing these funds since 2009, the Food Safety Program developed the process of conducting self-assessments, maintaining and updating the strategic improvement plan, and designing focused goalsmeant to address gaps identified by assessments. Currently the program has achieved full conformanceand full implementation with standards one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and ten and fullimplementation with standards three and nine. Funding provided by this cooperative agreement will beutilized to support program staff tasked with the development of procedures and practices designed toaddress identified gaps to achieve full conformance with all ten standards of MFRPS. All work completedunder this funding will be reviewed for applicability to other local, state, and federal programs and,when appropriate, will be provided to FDA Standards Implementation Staff for distribution to otherinterested parties. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is alsoseeking funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to support thedepartment?s Rapid Response Team (RRT) Implementation and Continuation Project. The amount offunding requested is $225,000 per year. Since the original award in 2009, the Virginia RRT has beendeveloped to fully incorporate the concepts and ideas of a truly integrated food safety system as amulti-agency, multi-disciplinary response team. Funding provided by this cooperative agreement will beutilized to continue a unified response between the agencies for food and animal emergencies. TheVirginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking funding from the U.S.Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to reinstate support for the Virginia Food SafetyTask Force (VA FSTF) under this project. Virginia received grant funds to support the Virginia Food SafetyTask Force (VA FSTF) from 2013 to 2016 and applied those funds to develop educational materials,support training/exercise opportunities and to host at least one conference annually to discuss foodsafety risks and response strategies for the Commonwealth. The amount of funding requested is$23,000 for a five-year period.