Project Summary/Abstract
Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) requests
$350,000.00 per year for each of the next 3 years – for a total of $1,050,000.00 across the entirety of
the next 3 year period – in furtherance of our project “MFRPS Maintenance and Continuous
Improvement for Wisconsin’s Division of Food and Recreational Services.” This project is meant to
assist DATCP’s manufactured food regulatory program in maintaining conformance with the federal
Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS), and to thereby help advance efforts
toward an integrated food safety system (IFSS).
Wisconsin is a pioneering MFPRS state, and has long maintained a significant Standards program.
We enrolled in the MFRPS in 2007, even before enactment of the landmark national Food Safety
Modernization Act (FSMA). We have been continuously receiving related Cooperative Agreement
Program (CAP) funding since 2012. Our proven approach to the MFRPS makes us capable of both
identifying obstacles to conformance, and properly directing resources to overcome them. As evinced
in particular by our participation in the Flexible Funding Model (FFM) grant and the related CAP
over the last half-decade – as well as our ongoing work with DATCP’s food Rapid Response Team
and our Bureau of Laboratory Services – we are well positioned to support further capacity
development and activities involving an IFSS. Our approach involves an overall strategy and
methodology that is appropriate and sufficiently well-considered to accomplish the goals of this
project, as detailed throughout our application materials. We have worked, and continue to work,
effectively with the federal and state actors who are our primary MFRPS partners. As outlined in the
budget materials submitted with this application, we intend to dedicate the necessary financial
resources, particularly as to staff and overall programmatic infrastructure, to achieve the CAP goals.