2023 Flexible Funding Model-Infrastructure Maintenance Grant for IDPH Manufactured Food Regulatory Program

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IDPH MFRPS MAINTENACE GRANT – OVERALL SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) central office is in Springfield, Illinois. A Deputy Director oversees the Offices of Finance and Administration, Human Resources, Health Protection, Health Promotion, Health Care Regulation, Women’s Health and Family Services, Information Technology, Preparedness and Response, Disease Control, and Policy, Planning & Statistics. A Deputy Director oversees operations for each of these Offices, which are further broken down into Divisions and Sections, each led by a Chief. The Office of Health Protection includes the Division of Environmental Health. One of the Environmental Health Sections is the Food, Dairies and Devices (FDD) Section. FDD is comprised of the Dairy, Body Art, Tanning, and Food Programs. The FDD Food Program maintains jurisdiction over manufactured food products in Illinois, including general food processing firms, warehouses, salvage firms, bottled water plants and sources, shellfish shippers, juice processors under Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) regulations, and seafood HACCP firms. All meat and poultry firms are under the jurisdiction of the Illinois Department of Agriculture. Retail food establishments including restaurants and grocery stores are under the jurisdiction of local health departments (LHDs). The FDD Section provides technical support to certified LHDs for regulation of retail food establishments through the Local Health Protection Grant. IDPH has divided Illinois’ 102 counties into seven (7) geographic regions. There is a regional office in each geographic region referred to as the IDPH Regional Office. IDPH Divisions have employees stationed in the Regional Office for convenience in travel and outreach for their various programs. The FDD Section has 1 to 5 inspectors headed by a Regional Supervising Inspector in each region. FDD’s trained field staff are responsible for conducting FDA Contract inspections, initial inspections, complaint inspections, and foodborne outbreak investigations, as needed, of registered manufactured food processing firms. Inspectors hold a bachelor’s degree with a minimum of 30 hours of physical or biological sciences to gain employment as an Environmental Health Specialist I, II or III. Illinois is in full conformance with all 10 MFRPS Standards as of the most recent audit in September 2022. This audit is the first time Illinois was found to be in full conformance with all 10 standards. Illinois has demonstrated through full conformance the goal of the previous MFRPS Grant. To maintain conformance with the MFRPS standards funding of this new grant opportunity is paramount. The Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) help the IDPH Manufactured Food Program identify the best food safety regulatory practices necessary for a high-quality regulatory program. Funding the MFRPS maintenance grant and the special project will ensure IDPH continues to play an important role in the Integrated Food Safety System.