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FDA grants money to three states to improve food and feed safety
The FDA has awarded three one-year Food Safety and Security Monitoring grants totaling $1 million to Arkansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin.
A sum of $350,000 was awarded to each state to fund Food Emergency Response Network chemistry laboratories. These laboratories play a key role in food regulation. The grants are also accompanied by the responsibility of performing selected analyses of food samples collected by the FDA or other government agencies should a large-scale food-related emergency arise.
The Arkansas Department of Health is expected to use the funds for increasing the ability and efficiency in testing for toxic and unknown substances in food products, providing regional support for national responses during food surveillance activities and increasing state and local emergency response capacities.
The Nebraska Department of Agriculture will use the money to increase food, food product and chemical analysis abilities. It may also use the money to expand laboratory capacities.
The grant to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture likely will be applied to state and national food emergency response systems, specifically in the area of chemical analysis.