Iowa Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards Conformance and Enhancement

Given the large impact of Iowa?s retail food industry, providing high quality inspections based upon thescientific principles of food safety is paramount to protecting Iowans and consumers throughout thestate. The Bureau has made significant improvements in building a formal system for continuousimprovement during previous cooperative agreement. During this cooperative agreement the Bureauseeks to build upon those improvements.The Bureau anticipates participation in this cooperative agreement will result in significantenhancements in the quality of inspections and inspectors. This will be achieved by the following: ? The State will maintain conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS); ? The State has and will continue to actively engage through workgroups and participation in committees supporting VNRFRPS; ? The State will develop strategies and share those strategies with other states including participating in FDA state data exchange project and co-developing and enhancing USAFoodSafety with over a dozen other states. Including enhancements and a new dataplatform; ? The State will provide FDA the foundation for pursuing regulatory action based upon the findings of State Retail Regulatory Program Standards; and ? The State will enhance its conformance with the VNRFRPS by completing additional work to simplify and implement routine monitoring for standards 4 and 6; ? The State will continue to work toward sustainability with less or no federal funding available.Result of Proposed ProjectThis cooperative agreement will continue to advance the Department?s conformance with the retailprogram standards with a focus on improving compliance with foodborne illness risk factors.