- Food Defense The Division of Environmental Health Sciences (DEHS) of the Wadsworth Center (WC) is the principal public health laboratory of New York State for the analysis of toxic chemicals in environmental samples and clinical specimens, and it is the primary response laboratory for chemical spills, nuclear accidents and terrorism-related incidents in the state. The DEHS of the WC has participated in the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) program at the national level since its inception and has developed substantial emergency capability for monitoring of chemical and radioactive contamination of food supplies under a FERN cooperative agreement program (CAP) with both Federal Agency USDA-FSIS and FDA. The DEHS of the WC is proposing to participate in the FDA funded 2020-2025 Laboratory Flexible Funding Model (LFFM) in Discipline B Chemistry - Track 1 - Food Defense to provide following analytical services: (1) participation in FDA-requested food surveillance activities and/or annual exercises such as FERN PTs to support and maintain readiness; (2) participation in national special security event (NSSE) including political conventions, large sporting events, and inaugural events; (3) maintain preparedness to respond rapidly to a suspected or confirmed intentional contamination event involving human or animal food, i.e., ensuring bench analysts maintain their training and competency, all instrumentation is in working order, and the necessary reagents and supplies are available; (4) participation in testing associated with suspected or credible threats to the food supply where a chemical agent is suspected, as requested by FDA; and (5) participation in FERN regional and FERN wide conference calls and activities. Scientists at the WC will also develop and improve analytical methods (i) to provide food defense testing and quality results to the federal agencies, and (ii) to enhance emergency capability and surge capacity and apply technical capabilities during a live activation event following FDA guidance. We also plan to extend our ISO-17025 accreditation to include our food chemistry methods.
