The Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry?s (LDAF) Division of Agricultural Chemistry Feed Program promotes feed and food safety through compliance education, enforcement of rules and regulations, investigation of feed-related complaints, routine sampling of animal feeds and routine inspection of feed facilities. Based on the Agricultural Chemistry Division Strategic Plan and the AFRPS initial assessment performed, the feed program needs for the cooperative agreement include: 1. Develop a means to evaluate the Feed Program?s legal authority to ensure the protection of the health of man and animals. 2. Craft a feed inspector training course curriculum, supporting the AFRPS requirements and the needs of our risk-based inspection program to ensure the knowledge, skills and abilities of feed inspection staff. 3. Construct a system to determine a risk-based inspection workplan and adequate inspection and investigation protocol. 4. Establish a means to evaluate our feed inspection training competencies, for both field and office procedures, to verify the effectiveness of our training curriculum. 5. Design a means to communicate with other agencies and a way to disseminate information in times of feed-related emergencies and cross-sector events. 6. Develop written policies and procedures that outline our Feed Program?s enforcement strategies. 7. Create and launch statewide educational outreach about feed topics which incorporates training activities and open communication between regulators, industry, academia and the consumer. 8. Create a means to evaluate the necessary resources to perform routine feed work in order to assure the Feed Program has adequate support to meet the goals of the workplan. 9. Standardize procedures for sample collection to ensure alignment with the Feed Program?s priorities. 10. Ensure the alignment of the laboratory procedures with the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) Quality Assurance/Quality Control guidelines and meet the managerial and technical requirements of ISO/IEC 17025:2005 in order to guarantee valid and defensible laboratory testing data to protect the health of man and animals. 11. Design a review system to ensure periodic assessment of the feed program per each Standard in order to implement necessary improvement. The implementation and continuous improvement of the feed program and laboratory plans and procedures through the AFRPS will assist both Louisiana and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better direct regulatory activities toward preventing feed manufacturing compliance issues and increasing food safety in the United States.
Funding under this cooperative agreement will allow the feed program to continue working towards full conformance with the AFRPS, strengthening our program and the laboratory, in order to sustain collaboration with the FDA and other stakeholders as part of a nationally integrated food safety system.
