Project Summary - Overall
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, foodborne illness is
common, costly, and preventable. CDC estimates that each year 1 in 6 Americans get sick from contaminated
food or beverages and 3,000 die from foodborne illness. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that
foodborne illnesses cost the United States more than $15.6 billion each year.1 Even with the advancements
made to improve food safety systems in the U.S., the occurrence of illness and injury is still too high.
The purpose of this funding is to advance efforts for a nationally and fully integrated food safety system
(IFSS) that reduces the risk-factors associated with foodborne illness and outbreak, lowers the occurrence of
illness, and protects public health. Maintaining conformance with the most current version of the Manufactured
Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) is a critical component to achieving full integration and helps
better direct regulatory activities to reduce the foodborne illness hazards in plants that manufacture, process,
pack, or hold foods. Additionally, this funding will support Georgia’s Food Safety and Defense Task Force
(GaFSTF) and its diverse membership responsible for promoting integration through an efficient statewide
human and animal food protection system that is focused on preparation and readiness with its key players
before food-related incidents occur.
Aims for this project include: 1) maintaining conformance with the most current version of the MFRPS;
2) providing FDA the foundation for improving contracts, inspections, investigations and enforcement to
effectively and efficiently protect public health; 3) applying the MFRPS response, enforcement and regulatory
framework to conduct follow-up inspections, investigations, and enforcement actions for positive and violative
samples and coordinate with the rapid response team as needed; and 4) supporting the GaFSTF to maximize
the protection of public health. For MFRPS, we plan to maintain conformance with the MFRPS, develop
information that can be shared and duplicated on a national basis, attend the annual face-to-face meeting,
participate in MFRPS initiatives that support the IFSS, maintain the food safety inspectional contract in good
standing, participate in work planning/sharing and develop capabilities for data sharing/exchange with FDA,
identify infrastructure needs and adopt applicable FSMA rules, propose how novel capabilities will be
maintained after the project concludes, maintain an information sharing agreement, and coordinate response
and compliance follow-up on laboratory samples in real-time with the FDA. For the task force project, we plan
to convene a GaFSTF annual meeting and a governance meeting yearly to inform, educate, and solicit input
from our stakeholders, report quantified metrics and measurable impact, and submit copies of presentations,
job aids, educational resources and other materials developed to the FDA Office of Partnerships annually.
