Expansion of Pennsylvania's State Food and Feed Laboratory Services in Response to the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act; Laboratory Accreditation Rule; and the FDA Integrated Food Safety System

AbstractAs a large state with a population of nearly 13 million, and an economic value of 6.1 billion inPennsylvania agriculture, it is of primary importance for Pennsylvania to possess a laboratory dedicatedto the analysis of food and feed products in order to provide defensible knowledge concerning thesafety and integrity of the products produced by the commonwealth. The integrity of this knowledge iscritical to inform decision makers in the production of public policy and protection of public health.In 2015 the Laboratory Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Food Safetyand Laboratory Services (?Laboratory?) began its participation in the Food and Drug Administration?sAnimal Feed Regulatory Program Standard Cooperative Agreement Program with the primary goal ofachieving accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, that defines the competence of testing andcalibration laboratories. In 2020, the Laboratory is set to achieve this goal and is looking towardexpanding the scope of its accreditation to better support its Food and Feed regulatory programs, and,in turn, support the FDA Integrated Food Safety System created under the 2011 Food SafetyModernization Act. To do this, the Laboratory is focused on four goals pivotal to the development of itsservices: 1) To strengthen its utilization of quality management and continuous improvement, 2) toexpand its scope of accreditation and testing capabilities, 3) to establish and expand manufactured foodand feed product testing for regulatory purposes, and 4) to continue to develop lasting laboratorypartnerships.