Building Capacity of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

<p>Building Capacity of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to Undertake Examinations, Inspections, Investigations, and Other Food Safety Activities Project Summary/Proposal Abstract the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking funding from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-12-027 to support the department's implementation of a specialized inspection program. The amount of funding requested is$300,000.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Division of Federal-State Relations (DFSR) and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN), is announcing the availability of cooperative agreements to be awarded under Limited Competition. This opportunity is only available to State, local, territorial, and tribal food safety regulatory agencies, as well as nonprofit food safety training entities that collaborate with one or more institutions of higher education. The VDACS Office of Dairy & Foods, Food Safety & Security Program meets all requirements to be eligible for this funding. The program serves as one of the state's primary food regulatory programs. The program is responsible for inspection of both retail and manufactured food establishments in the state. VDACS is the only state agency responsible for regulating manufactured food establishments. Funding provided by the RFA will be utilized to continue to protect public health and implement a prevention focused inspection system. Specifically the funding will be used to hire a Manufactured Foods Specialist and implement a pilot program to pave the way for a specialized inspection program. A specialized inspection program will increase the rate of inspections, investigations, and other food safety related activities, especially in high risk firms; decrease the rate of repeat food safety violations; increase compliance rates; and an increase in the sharing of data between FDA and other agencies for manufactured food establishments.</p>