The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking funding from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to support the infrastructure maintenance of
Virginia’s Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards project. The VDACS Food Safety Program
meets all eligibility requirements for this funding and has a current food safety inspection contract with
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The amount of funding requested is $225,000 per year.
Utilizing these funds since 2009, the Food Safety Program developed the process of conducting self-
assessments, maintaining and updating the strategic improvement plan, and designing focused goals
meant to address gaps identified by assessments. Currently the program has achieved full conformance
and full implementation with standards one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and ten and full
implementation with standards three and nine. Funding provided by this cooperative agreement will be
utilized to support program staff tasked with the development of procedures and practices designed to
address identified gaps to achieve full conformance with all ten standards of MFRPS. All work completed
under this funding will be reviewed for applicability to other local, state, and federal programs and,
when appropriate, will be provided to FDA Standards Implementation Staff for distribution to other
interested parties. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is also
seeking funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to support the
department’s Rapid Response Team (RRT) Implementation and Continuation Project. The amount of
funding requested is $225,000 per year. Since the original award in 2009, the Virginia RRT has been
developed to fully incorporate the concepts and ideas of a truly integrated food safety system as a
multi-agency, multi-disciplinary response team. Funding provided by this cooperative agreement will be
utilized to continue a unified response between the agencies for food and animal emergencies. The
Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking funding from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-18-001 to reinstate support for the Virginia Food Safety
Task Force (VA FSTF) under this project. Virginia received grant funds to support the Virginia Food Safety
Task Force (VA FSTF) from 2013 to 2016 and applied those funds to develop educational materials,
support training/exercise opportunities and to host at least one conference annually to discuss food
safety risks and response strategies for the Commonwealth. The amount of funding requested is
$23,000 for a five-year period.
