In response to the FDA's Laboratory Flexible Funding Model program announcement, the Mississippi State Chemical Laboratory (MSCL) has submitted a robust proposal titled ?Enhancement of Mississippi's Capabilities in Integrated Food Safety Partnerships.? This plan encompasses six projects: ? Discipline B: Chemistry, Analytical Track 1. Food Defense (Years 1-5) ? Discipline B: Chemistry, Analytical Track 2. Human Food Product Testing (Years 1-5) ? Discipline B: Chemistry, Analytical Track 3. Animal Food Product Testing (Years 1-5) ? Discipline D: Special Projects 1. Sample Collection (Years 1-5) ? Discipline D: Special Projects 2. NFSDX and ORAPP Integration (Year 1 only) ? Discipline D: Special Projects 3. Method Development/Validation (Year 2 only) The Human Food Product Testing Project will be conducted in Years 1 through 5 of the cooperative agreement. The goal of this project is to enhance the State of Mississippi's human food testing program in partnership with the Mississippi Department of Health (MSDH), who will collect the majority of our samples. In Year 1, we will screen a variety of retail food products for major classes of potential contaminants. These products and associated tests include the following: infant formula/baby food for pesticides, condiments for pesticides, corn products/grains/meal for aflatoxins, juices for pesticides and mercury/heavy metals, fruits and vegetables for pesticides, and seafood for marine toxins and mercury/heavy metals. Based on the results from Year 1, two commodity-hazard pairs will be chosen for Year 2, and 200 samples of each pair will be analyzed. An additional 100 samples will continue to be screened for the other commodities as well; in this manner, each the commodity-hazard pairs chosen in the following years can continue to be modified based upon these results. The total sample loads for Years 3 through 5 will be 500 as well. By the end of the project, the plan would be to permanently implement these tests into our normal regulatory testing that we provide to the State.
