Egg Safety Regulatory Program Standards Development (U18)

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ESRPS Project Summary Narrative Given the large impact of Iowa's egg handling industry, providing high quality inspections based on the scientific principles of feed/food safety is paramount to protecting Iowans and consumers throughout the nation and world. Furthermore, the President has provided a significant level of focus on food safety nationally as has Congress with the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Similarly, within Iowa we have found an added interest in food safety. Because of the Congress passage of FSMA, the Bureau has identified that we will be no longer able to keep up with the growing number of questions and requests to provide assistance and speak to various groups regarding egg safety. As part of the ESRPS cooperative agreement option, the Bureau is requesting funding to help answer these questions. The Bureau will hire a new employee to oversee this endeavor. It will also be necessary to restructure duties of existing staff, using ESRPS funding, at the beginning of this grant to allow the program to organize. Continuing this endeavor is absolutely essential to meet the needs of Iowans interested in adding value to all agricultural commodities. However, the State's resources are currently not adequate to respond to the growing needs of egg handlers and consumers across Iowa. The Bureau anticipates participation in this cooperative agreement will result in significant enhancement in the quality of inspections and inspectors egg and bio-security knowledge for Iowa's egg handling facilities. This will be obtained by the following: • The State will achieve and sustain significant to full conformance with the Egg Safety Regulatory Program Standards (ESRPS); • The State has and will continue to actively engage through an annual face-to face meeting (if applicable) and participation in committees supporting ESRPS; • The State has and will collaboratively develop strategies and share those strategies with FDA, States, Counties and local agencies; • The State will work with FDA establishing the foundation for pursuing regulatory action based upon the findings of state inspections at state egg handler facilities; and • The State will seek to further enhance its capability to protect public health through development and implementation of Standard Enhancement Projects. The goal of this project is to attain full conformance. At minimum, absent major unforeseen difficulties, significant conformance will be attained with the ESRPS. .