Minnesota Food Protection Rapid Response Team and Program Capacity Building Project

Project AbstractThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Office ofPartnerships (OP), in collaboration with the Office of Foods and Veterinary Medicine (OFVM), isannouncing the availability of up to nine cooperative agreements to be awarded under a LimitedCompetition. These cooperative agreements are intended to maintain and sustain multi-jurisdictional Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) that operate using Incident Command System(ICS)/National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles and a Unified Command structureto strengthen the collaboration among epidemiology, laboratory and environmentalhealth/regulatory activities and support integrated all-hazards preparedness, response, mitigationand recovery/prevention efforts for food/feed within the national integrated food safety system.As a recipient of funding under RFA-FD-13-006, MDA is eligible to apply for this CooperativeAgreement. The funding provided under the previous Cooperative Agreement has been used tofurther develop significant response capacity related to foodborne illness outbreaks and otherfood safety events and has also been used to develop a detailed Improvement Plan for the FDAManufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). Continuation of this funding willaddress the Objectives and Deliverables detailed in this application.The Minnesota RRT is a partnership among the MDA, Minnesota Department of Health, FDAMinneapolis District Office, and local health partners and has current expertise in epidemiology;traceback and trace forward investigations; recalls; food microbiology and chemistry analysis;human clinical laboratory analysis, including PFGE and whole genome sequencing (WGS)capability; animal health/veterinary medicine; environmental assessments in processing facilities,dairy farms, and egg farms; and program-specific expertise in food, feed, meat, poultry, eggs, anddairy.Minnesota will continue to meet the 6 Program Objectives by using criteria developed under theRRT 5 Year Plan and the Capacity Building and Mentorship Program to meet key milestones ineach of these six program areas. MDA will also continue to develop, train and implement a foodprotection RRT that incorporates ICS concepts and contribute to a national framework of RRTbest practices through the RRT Best Practices Manual, multi-agency exercises, and othercollaborative projects.