Increasing the Capability and Capacity of Microbiological and Chemical Testing to Support an Integrated Food Defense and Food Safety System

Increasing the Capability and Capacity ofMicrobiological and Chemical Testing to Support anIntegrated Food Defense and Food Safety SystemOverall ComponentProject Summary / AbstractThe Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) Consumer Protection Laboratory (CPL) and AnimalDisease Diagnostic Laboratory (ADDL) will strengthen the national food supply chain andenhance federal and state regulatory effectiveness in food safety and defense, supporting theFood Safety Modernization Act and the Food Emergency Response Network. The agencyproposes to participate in all US FDA initiated food defense activities related to animal orhuman food including proficiency tests, surveillance activities, triage exercises, national securityevent exercises and any other testing as requested by the FDA where suspected or crediblethreats to the food supply are present. CPL will maintain operational readiness in supplies,instrumentation and personnel should they be activated for a rapid response capable of testingat least 50 microbiological and 75 chemical samples. ODA-CPL will also participate in state-initiated product testing of human and animal food products, testing at minimum 2,000samples total for microbiological and chemical contaminants. ODA-CPL will incorporate andimplement routine Cyclospora and allergen screening in human or animal food products. ODA-ADDL will enhance the FDA?s GenomeTrakr network and the National Center for BiotechnologyInformation?s Pathogen databases through Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) and uploading ofat least 400 different human food, animal food or environmental isolates, providing support forother state and federal partners and participating in any method validation studies as requested.To improve communications with federal partners and minimize event response time, ODA-CPLwill enhance their existing data system, USALIMS, to integrate with the FDA ORA?s NationalFood Safety Data Exchange. Lastly, ODA-CPL proposes to participate in a multi-laboratoryvalidation study of testing bottled water for metals by ICP-MS. Based on the current fundingopportunity, the agency requests $1,360,000 in project period 1 for samples, supplies, payroll,services and equipment as needed to support all projects proposed and up to $5,060,000 inadditional funding as currently offered by FDA for the remaining project periods.