Washington State Department of Agriculture Food Protection Task Force Grant Renewal Application Project Summary 6/25/2015 Washington State Department of Agriculture Food Protection Task Force Project Summary Years 8/1/2015?7/31/2020 Claudia G. Coles, Principal Investigator The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Food Safety and Consumer Services Division (FSCS) is submitting this grant renewal application package to request FDA support for outreach activities targeted at the Food Manufacturing industry, Local Health Agencies, and Academia in Washington State. The WSDA proposes holding two to four workshops per project year that address two major and timely food safety issues. Our flexible endeavor would offer two different demand-based workshops: 1) Food Safety Modernization Act & Microbiology Pathogens 2) Food Allergen Preventive Controls These workshops address three key elements of the (R13) funding mechanism; namely: 1) The workshops will foster better communication between food industry, academia, local health agencies, and the WSDA FSCS. 2) The workshops will assist the food industry in their implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA); specifically, Preventive Controls. 3) The workshops will help prevent foodborne illness through education on techniques to identify and reduce food safety hazards and risks in the Food Processing plant. Since some of our workshop locations will include the border cities of Vancouver and Spokane Washington, our outreach will extend into Oregon and Idaho respectively. WSDA is requesting approval and funding for $10,000 per year for five project years (8/1/2015?7/31/2020. The sum total for funding this request is $50,000.
