IA ERPS Cooperative Agreement

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ERPS Project Summary 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 federal governments continues to focus on food safety nationally as demonstrated by the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Similarly, within Iowa we have found an added interest in food safety. 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 ERPS cooperative agreement option, the Bureau is requesting funding to craft the documents needed for ERPS compliance, for training of personnel, and to conduct outreach and public education. Continuous improvement in Egg Safety and Quality is absolutely essential to meet the needs of Iowans. 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 (ERPS). • The State has and will continue to actively engage through an annual face-to face meeting (if applicable) and participation in committees supporting ERPS. • The State 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. The goal of this project is to attain full conformance with the ERPS within 3 years and to put into place the tools necessary to allow continuous improvement and to ensure continued compliance once the funding is discontinued.