Enhancing the Capability and Capacity of Human and Animal Food Testing Laboratories within West Virginia under the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model

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West Virginia Department of Agriculture Laboratory Flexible Funding Model PAR-20-105 Abstract- Overall Food surveillance testing is an integral part of protecting consumers and the nation’s food supply. In order to detect and remove contaminated food from the supply chain, it is important for agricultural agencies to be able to quickly and accurately test for a wide variety of pathogens. The proposed project will increase the overall testing capabilities and capacities of food testing in West Virginia. This mitigation will directly decrease the risk of contaminated foods from reaching endpoint consumers. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture (WVDA) will specifically aim to enhance the capability and capacity of WV’s human and animal food testing laboratories in support of an integrated food safety system. The WVDA will provide enhanced sample collections and test offerings in the fields of microbiology and chemistry that are ISO accredited and accepted by the FDA. The WVDA will also develop special projects that will support and expand related testing. The WVDA also aims to strengthen and improve the collaboration of surveillance activities between the FDA and other laboratory partners. The West Virginia Department of Agriculture serves as the primary regulatory agency for human and animal food product testing and is also the primary regulatory agency for the testing of manufactured foods (MFRPS) and animal food (AFRPS) in WV. The laboratories have 18 methods that are ISO 17025 accredited. The agency has been an active member of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) since 2005. The laboratories have completed method development, single and multi-laboratory method validations, and surveillance activities for FERN. The WVDA actively conducts analysis of foods for microbiology and chemistry food defense purposes as well. The WVDA has demonstrated that with the infrastructure and experience of personnel, the facility, ISO accreditation, research projects, method developments, and on-going surveillance projects that it is committed to completing the objectives of this track. This project will enhance the human food surveillance capability and capacity of the WVDA and help support an integrated food safety system by strengthening cooperation with the FDA.