National Center for Food Safety and Technology

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PROJECT SUMMARY The Institute for Food Safety and Health (IFSH) National Center for Food Safety and Technology (NCFST) is a food safety and applied nutrition research consortium of the US Food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (FDA/CFSAN), the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), and the food industry. Since the establishment in 1988, NCFST has successfully provided a unique collaborative neutral ground where scientists from academia, government, and industry join forces and work together to address food safety issues of national significance. These successes were achieved as a result of NCFST partnering with industry, academia, and the FDA. NCFST is structured so that representatives of participating organizations play a role in establishing policy and administrative procedures, as well as identifying long- and short-term research programs that address FDA and industry strategic needs. With this organizational structure, NCFST is uniquely positioned to build cooperative food safety programs on a foundation of knowledge about current industrial trends in food processing and packaging technologies, regulatory perspectives from public health organizations, and fundamental scientific expertise from academia. The NCFST collaborative research programs in food safety are coordinated through the Science Forum, with five research platforms including Food Processing and Packaging, Food Microbiology, Food Chemistry and Allergen, Proficiency Testing and Method Validation, and Nutrition. Research conducted at NCFST addresses key food safety issues facing the country and supports the development of safe food with health-promoting properties from farm to fork. This research forms a scientific basis for policy decisions affecting food safety and public health. In addition, NCFST is the coordinator of the Food Safety Preventive Controls Alliance (FSPCA) and the Sprouts Safety Alliance (SSA), leveraging the expertise of academia, industry, and FDA for the purpose of developing and delivering standardized curricula related to FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requirements. These Alliances are key integral parts of the FDA's FSMA implementation strategies.