Since 2014, the NASDA Foundation has had a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to assist in the implementation of the Produce Safety Rule. The Foundation involved volunteers from 24 states to write the NASDA Model Produce Safety Implementation Framework, a document created specifically to assist states to have a roadmap for the implementation of the PSR. The NASDA Foundation also created the On‐Farm Readiness Review program to provide farmers with a voluntary, non‐regulatory “assessment” of the farm’s readiness for an inspection. It has been successful in bridging the gap between education and regulation; over 2500 OFRRs have been completed nationwide.

The NASDA Foundation organizes and hosts an annual National Produce Safety Consortium, bringing key personnel together to share best practices and build on consistency and uniformity of programs. We have developed a Standardized Approach to Produce Farm Inspections, numerous training modules for inspectors and program managers, and many other job aides. The Foundation continues to develop webinars on various priority topics to assist states in training their employees and create uniform and consistent programs nationwide. Another significant effort is establishing “regulatory program standards” for the state produce safety programs. We are working collaboratively with the Association of Food & Drug Officials and the FDA to establish these standards. While these standards will not be implemented for several years, the state staff involved in developing these standards are helping to ensure that they are grounded in the way states are administering these programs at the state-level. We are also working on a long list of other projects aimed at assisting the states, including agricultural water, an on-farm advanced scenario-based training program for the OFRR program, and training priorities to begin routine regulatory inspections required by FDA.

The NASDA Foundation has had a cooperative agreement with FDA since 2016 to assist in the implementation of the Preventive Controls for Animal Food Rule. The Foundation also created a framework document for the feed program expansion at the state level, the NASDA Model Food Safety Modernization Act Preventive Controls for Animal Food Implementation Framework, distributed to the states in September 2018. The NASDA Foundation was recently awarded a new cooperative agreement with FDA for $600,000 per year for a total value of $1.8 million over three years. We will partner with the Association of American Feed Control Officials on the deliverables of the cooperative agreement.

The agreement will fund several of the annual conferences hosted by AAFCO for the training of state personnel, development work on the program standards, building of a database system to store and share documents among the states and continued work on building an integrated food safety system between FDA and the states. NASDA will be engaged in many of the deliverables and will ensure the members are aware of the benefits to their respective state programs. We believe the partnership between NASDA and AAFCO will serve the states well.

Learn more:

Animal Food Safety

Produce Safety Rule

On-Farm Readiness Review

More Resources:

Food Emergency Response Plan

The NASDA Foundation Food Safety Team created a Food Emergency Response Template as part of an effort to develop a seamless system of food defense between local, state and federal jurisdictions. It addresses the goal of protecting public health and enhancing the protection of the U.S. agricultural industry and food security through the increased prevention, detection, response and recovery planning.

Introduction to Public Health Food Inspections Course

NC State University, U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Office of Regulatory Affairs and NASDA have partnered to create an Introduction to Public Health Food Inspections course. This course will provide students with a deep understanding of regulatory food procedures and practical applications in state and federal government regulatory food inspections and enforcement and will discuss career opportunity in this field of work.