The Kansas Department of Agriculture's Flexible Funding Model Cooperative Agreement to maintain and expand MFRPS; continue progress with our Food Safety Task Force; develop an RRT; and special project

The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Lodging Program (KDA-FSL) promotes foodsafety by establishing food protection standards, investigating complaints, educating food businessesand consumers, and licensing and inspecting food businesses. KDA-FSL will use funding from the FlexibleFunding Model Cooperative Agreement (FFM) to further improve and maintain the Manufactured FoodRegulatory Program Standards (MFRPS), develop and maintain a Rapid Response Team (RRT), increaseintegration of food and feed defense and safety activities through the Kansas Food Protection TaskForce (KS-FPTF); enhance MFRPS-related sampling programs; and enhance our partnership with theFood and Drug Administration (FDA) by creating an inspection data exchange.KDA-FSL has been enrolled in MFRPS since 2008. Continuing this cooperative agreement will allow ourprogram to strive for full conformance of the 2016 MFRPS. With continued funding and support KDA-FSLwill further enhance our policies and procedures, utilize data sharing to help do our part in creating anintegrated food safety system, and further the education of our inspection staff through FDA trainings.The Kansas Department of Agriculture and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE)will work collaboratively with the FDA to develop and implement a RRT for large scale food and feedemergencies. The Kansas RRT will have the combined expertise and resources of multiple agenciesleading to a multidisciplinary approach that facilitates a coordinated, efficient, and effective response.The RRT cooperative agreement will allow the development of intra and interagency plans that can besustained long term. The mission of the Kansas RRT will be to effectively respond to foodborne illnessoutbreaks and identify potential preventative practices to protect the food supply and consumer healthboth nationally and globally as a part of an Integrated Food Safety System.The KS-FPTF will organize yearly meetings and produce a quarterly newsletter to target hard-to-reachstakeholders, foster communication, cooperation and collaboration within the state. The KS-FPTF willcollaborate with other states? Food Protection Task Forces and share any innovative outcomes that aredeveloped. The KS-FPTF will work to advance processes that will facilitate the investigation, prevention,and control of foodborne disease outbreaks.Utilizing a special project tied to the MFRPS, KDA-FSL will (1) enhance our sampling program by creatinga recorded sampling training workshop, collecting additional samples to reinforce this training, andconducting a validation study to ensure effective procedures are in place; and (2) create a data sharingsystem with the FDA for inspections. These projects will allow us to continue improving our program andwill help KDA-FSL continue to do its part towards creating a national, fully integrated food safety system.