The Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) promotes food safety by establishing food protection standards, investigating complaints, educating food businesses and consumers, and licensing and inspecting food businesses. We are committed to food safety because we understand how important it is to public health, which is why we have been enrolled in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) since 2009. Entering into a cooperative agreement will allow our department to better accomplish our goal of greater VNRFRPS conformance. With funding and support from the FDA, we can implement an updated training plan for field staff, develop and implement a quality assurance program for the inspection program, as well as the compliance and enforcement program, update the inspection program and create a risk- based inspection system, and update and expand our educational outreach programs for both consumers and industry. This cooperative agreement will also support our continued involvement and participation in Retail Standards events, conferences, meetings, and audits. Through regular self-assessment, completion of mid-year and annual performance reports, and annually reviewing and updating our five-year strategic plan, we will be able to assess our progress and refocus our work, so that at the end of this cooperative agreement, we will have reached signification conformance with the Retail Program Standards. Major progress we will accomplish includes: ? Develop and implement a quality assurance program for inspections ? Develop and implement a risk-based inspection system ? Update our compliance and enforcement program and develop a performance review program for enforcement strategies ? Update and improve our inspector training program ? Improve and expand industry and consumer outreach
Relevance By participating in a cooperative agreement with the FDA, the Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) aims to gain significant to full conformance in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS). Conformance to these standards means the KDA maintains best practices for a high-quality retail food regulatory program. This will contribute to the reduction of illnesses and deaths from food produced at the retail level.
