Building Capacity of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services toUndertake Examinations, Inspections, Investigations, and Other Food Safety ActivitiesProject Summary/Proposal AbstractThe Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is seeking fundingfrom the U.S. Food and Drug Administration under RFA-FD-12-027 to support the department'simplementation of a specialized inspection program. The amount of funding requested is$300,000.The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), Division ofFederal-State Relations (DFSR) and the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN),is announcing the availability of cooperative agreements to be awarded under LimitedCompetition. This opportunity is only available to State, local, territorial, and tribal food safetyregulatory agencies, as well as nonprofit food safety training entities that collaborate with one ormore institutions of higher education.The VDACS Office of Dairy & Foods, Food Safety & Security Program meets all requirements tobe eligible for this funding. The program serves as one of the state's primary food regulatoryprograms. The program is responsible for inspection of both retail and manufactured foodestablishments in the state. VDACS is the only state agency responsible for regulatingmanufactured food establishments.Funding provided by the RFA will be utilized to continue to protect public health and implementa prevention focused inspection system. Specifically the funding will be used to hire aManufactured Foods Specialist and implement a pilot program to pave the way for a specializedinspection program. A specialized inspection program will increase the rate of inspections,investigations, and other food safety related activities, especially in high risk firms; decrease therate of repeat food safety violations; increase compliance rates; and an increase in the sharingof data between FDA and other agencies for manufactured food establishments.
Building Capacity of the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to Undertake Examinations, Inspections, Investigations, and Other Food Safety Activities Project Narrative Funding provided to support the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Food Safety &Security Program will be used to build the capacity of the Agency to undertake examinations, inspections, investigations, and related food safety activities under section 702. This would facilitate long term improvements to the national food safety system.
