(tissue) Given the large impact of Iowa?s feed manufacturing industry, providing information through education about the prevention of drug residue based on the scientific principles of feed/food safety is paramount to protecting Iowans and consumers throughout the nation and world. Furthermore, the President has provided a significant level of focus on food safety nationally as has Congress with the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Similarly, within Iowa we have found an added interest in food safety. Speaking to groups to provide information through education is a large part of what our Bureau has identified to be successful with the FDA Drug Residue Cooperative Agreement Program. Initially the Bureau will restructure duties of existing staff to allow us time to evaluate if a new staff person is needed to assist in this area. We will start by getting involved with personal appearances in the agriculture classes at the State?s Universities, Colleges, Junior Colleges and even the High Schools. We will use willing subject matter experts from around the country via webinars. We will educate our inspectors about the prevention of drug resides. We will develop drug residue prevention material that will include a survey which our inspectors will hand out at all of our 500+ inspections throughout the year. Our inspectors will be properly trained so they can answer any questions that they may receive. We will enhance, and make available, the existing pamphlets that are already being used by the Animal Industry Bureau or we will create our own. We will make sure the information can be relayed to the public in a manner than can be understood. We will make available the drug residue materials at State and County Fairs as well as being involved with mailings. We will record an event/webinar of a training seminar and post it on-line so it can be available to anyone at any time. The recorded seminar along with the informational pamphlets will be posted on our website so they will be available to everyone (including FDA) and will continue to be available after the end of the agreement. The objective of this agreement is intended to ensure that IDALS develops a drug residue prevention program to protect consumer exposure to drug residues in the edible products of food animals. This will be achieved by educating laypersons and practitioners of the risks of drug residues and providing them methods of prevention. This will significantly enhance the quality of food sold in Iowa.
Implementation of the FDA Drug Residue Cooperative Agreement Program (U18) will ultimately assist the Department in protecting public health by using educational outreach and training of laypersons and practitioners to build a stronger foundation to promote the prevention of illegal drug residues in animal derived foods.
