Expansion of Pennsylvania's State Food and Feed Laboratory Services in Response to the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act, Laboratory Accreditation Rule, and the FDA Integrated Food Safety System

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Abstract As a large state with a population of nearly 13 million, and an economic value of 6.1 billion in Pennsylvania agriculture, it is of primary importance for Pennsylvania to possess a laboratory dedicated to the analysis of food and feed products in order to provide defensible knowledge concerning the safety and integrity of the products produced by the commonwealth. The integrity of this knowledge is critical to inform decision makers in the production of public policy and protection of public health. In 2015 the Laboratory Division of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services (“Laboratory”) began its participation in the Food and Drug Administration’s Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standard Cooperative Agreement Program with the primary goal of achieving accreditation to the ISO/IEC 17025 standard, that defines the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. In 2020, the Laboratory is set to achieve this goal and is looking toward expanding the scope of its accreditation to better support its Food and Feed regulatory programs, and, in turn, support the FDA Integrated Food Safety System created under the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act. To do this, the Laboratory is focused on four goals pivotal to the development of its services: 1) To strengthen its utilization of quality management and continuous improvement, 2) to expand its scope of accreditation and testing capabilities, 3) to establish and expand manufactured food and feed product testing for regulatory purposes, and 4) to continue to develop lasting laboratory partnerships.