Maintenance of Human and Animal Food Rapid Response Team - Wisconsin

Project AbstractThe efforts undertaken as part of this Cooperative Agreement will further increase the capacity of Wisconsins foodsafety regulatory programs to protect public health and to improve the food safety system. The US Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) developed the RRT program as a tool to promote uniformity and cooperation among federalstate and local agencies during food related emergencies. Maintaining and improving Wisconsins RRT will enhanceWisconsins ability to detect respond and abate human and animal food related emergencies through a coordinatedresponse utilizing the Incident Command System as an organizational structure. The framework provided by the RRTwill allow Wisconsin to establish a coordinated response program to reduce hazards in human and animal food firmsand markets.Wisconsin first became a volunteer RRT state in 2015. During that time Wisconsin committed itself to laying thegroundwork and establishing the partnerships needed to have a successful RRT program by conducting baselineassessments identifying and engaging core food safety partners as well as sending staff the national meetingstrainings and workgroups. In 2018 Wisconsin was awarded the RRT cooperative and systematically beganworking through the RRT developmental phases. Wisconsins RRT program reached full maturation at thecompletion of year three of the cooperative agreement and since then has been a fully functioning RRT program.This two-year cooperative agreement will allow Wisconsin to continue its efforts to implement its strategicimprovement plan to achieve maintain and enhance its fully-functioning RRT program. All project goalsmilestones objectives and required deliverables for the RRT cooperative agreement have been incorporated into itsStrategic Improvement Plan and annual plan of work. Highlights of planned activities include: Maintaining and continually improving our emergency response framework through evaluation of RRT responses and identification of continuous improvement projects; Improving integration and national capacity by recruiting local public health agencies into Information Sharing Agreement - Long-Term Limited Scope Food Feed and Cosmetics 20.88 Agreement thus minimizing operational communication barriers; Gathering and sharing data to support prevention and surveillance by utilizing the National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) process of conducting environmental assessments as well as implementing Dead End Ultra Filtration water sampling techniques; Communicating RRT impact by seeking out opportunities to share food safety advancements through regional presentations as well as journal articles and academic papers.