West Virginia Conformance with the National Voluntary Retail Programs Standards

<p>Abstract: West Virginia Conformance with Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards West Virginia (WV) has a current Food Inspection contract with the Food and Drug Administration and enrolled in the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) in 2008. Enrollment in the Standards in 2008 was an affirmative step toward the development of policies and procedures to improve the manufactured food program. WV has been actively working toward achieving and sustaining conformance with the Standards. The mission of the project for WV is to implement a risk based food safety program. WV will establish a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of manufactured food regulators and inspectors. Foodborne illness hazards shall be reduced by the development and implementation of the MFRPS. Manufactured food program staff has worked diligently toward completing training, developing policies and rules, and tracking various aspects of the Standards. A self-assessment has been completed to identify gaps and strengths of the program. A self-improvement plan has also been completed that addressed each gap that was found. WV intends to move forward with continuing accomplishments and moving into areas of the Standards where work is still needed. The program plans to hire one support staff person to handle data entry, tracking related to various Standards, file management, and general office duties related to the MFRPS. These duties are currently being performed by the project manager. The project manager will be better able to direct time to policy and rule development, training, management of the databases, conduct additional audits, and various other duties related to MFRPS. The project manager will annually review all work that has been conducted toward MFRPS. Progress achieved in each Standard will be documented. After there view, all identified gaps will be addressed in a comprehensive self-assessment with the current self-improvement plan being reviewed and updated on an annual basis. Gaps will be given a time line for achievement. Gaps that are most achievable will be assigned an earlier time frame for completion. West Virginia plans to implement strategic plans to ensure continuous improvement and demonstrate that they have achieved full compliance by the end of the grant period.</p>