Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Dairy and Food Inspection Divisions Response

Projec Abstrac The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Division ofFederal-State Relations (DFSR) and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN),is announcing the availability of cooperative agreements to be awarded under LimitedCompetition to State, local, territorial, or tribal retail food regulatory programs. The intendedoutcome of this FOA is to advance efforts for a nationally integrated food safety system throughthe conformance with and advancement of the Voluntary National Retail Food RegulatoryProgram Standards (VNRFRPS or Retail Program Standards). The VNRFRPS apply to theoperation and management of a retail food regulatory program that is focused on the reductionof risk factors known to contribute to foodborne illness and the promotion of industry action toachieve active managerial control of these risk factors.The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Dairy and Food Inspection Division (DFID)licenses and inspects approximately 10,000 food facilities including 8,000 retail foodestablishments in Minnesota and delegates and oversees retail food inspection authority to 9local health agencies in the state. The 9 local health agencies license and inspect approximately2,500 retail facilities under a delegation agreement with MDA. The DFID has programresponsibility for both retail and manufactured foods and has a staff complement of 50 for foodrelated activities with 31 devoted to field inspection. Approximately 80 per cent of the foodprogram's workload is in retail food licensing, compliance, and inspection activities.The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, as part of this application, will create acomprehensive Strategic Plan that outlines the milestones and goals needed to gain fullconformance to the VNRFRPS within the 5 year grant period. This application also describesthe creation of a Model Standard Operating Procedure Library that will serve as a resource toother agencies and jurisdictions attempting to conform to these standards.