Given the large impact of Iowa's food manufacturing industry, providing high quality inspections based on the scientific principles of food safety is paramount to protecting Iowans and consumers throughout the nation and world. The Bureau has made significant improvements in building a more formal system for continuous improvement during previous cooperative agreement. During this cooperative agreement the Bureau seeks to build upon those improvement. The Bureau anticipates participation in this cooperative agreement will result in significant enhancement in the quality of inspections and inspectors for Iowa's manufactured food facilities. This will be obtained by the following: ? The State will maintain conformance with the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS); ? The State has and will continue to actively engage through an annual face-to- face meeting and participation in committees supporting MFRPS; ? The State has and will collaboratively develop strategies and share those strategies with other states including participating in the FDA state data exchange project and co-developing USAFoodSafety with over a dozen other states ? The State will provide FDA the foundation for pursuing regulatory action based upon the findings of State manufactured food regulatory programs; and ? The State will complete the adoption and implementation of 21 CFR Part 117; ? The State will enhance is conformance with the MFRPS by completing additional work to simplify and implement routine monitoring for standards 4 and 6; ? The State will enhance conformance by expanding sampling procedures and continuing cooperating with its primary servicing laboratory, the State Hygienic Laboratory at the University of Iowa, in maintaining ISO 17025 accreditation; and ? The State will continue to work toward sustainability with less or no federal funding available.
Our focus is maintain conformance in the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) by developing policies and procedures, strengthening collaborations and conducting program self-assessment to reach significant conformance with the standards. This will help the Department protect public health by having policies and procedures in place resulting in a high quality manufactured foods regulatory program.
