Description
FDA will work to plan and implement an inspection and enforcement program to ensure high rates of compliance with the Agency's food safety standards. By working with federal, state, territorial, and local regulatory and public health partners, FDA aims to establish a fully integrated food safety system (IFSS) built on collaboration among all of these partners. The system will encompass inspections, laboratory testing, and response and will place priority on preventing foodborne illness, in both food for humans and animals, through the adoption and uniform application of model programs, such as Manufactured Food and the Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards and other appropriate program standards. This collaboration will result in 1) better ability to assess potential risk at domestic food facilities and greater and more consistent inspectional coverage of these facilities across the entire food supply chain, 2) greater food surveillance through integration of food facility inspection and testing information, and 3) improved rapid response capacity and efficiency. Under this system, FDA and Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local regulatory agencies will conduct food facility inspections under the same set of standards. FDA will work with its regulatory partners to develop uniform national standards, including inspection, investigation, and testing protocols; training and certification requirements; program audit criteria; and performance metrics to ensure program objectives are met. System integrity and credibility will be maintained through regular program oversight and accountability at all levels. Federal and state inspections will be conducted in accordance with a public health risk driven national work plan that FDA will develop with its regular partners. An integrated system will result in more coordinated response efforts to better respond to multi-state outbreaks when they occur. For successful implementation of a training and certification system of this magnitude, the federal/state/local/territorial/tribal regulators must have a clear understanding of knowledge and skills necessary to support the various career tracks (e.g., investigator/inspector, compliance officer, and manager), as well as the necessary training standard and the necessary requirements for each career track. The expectation is that the awardee will work to assist FDA and our other regulatory and public health partners in reaching the goal of ensuring a competent workforce doing comparable work at all levels of the integrated food system via the national food/feed training system. The awardee will have the opportunity to assist the IFSS in the design, development, delivery, and maintenance of a national food/feed training program. Proposed Projects for the awardee: The awardee will pursue American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) accreditation. Through the pursuit of this accreditation, the awardee will establish the quality standards that must be met for both individual training courses and instructors. These quality standards will be used to identify Centers of Excellence that would provide training courses to satisfy core curriculums. ANSI/IACET accreditation will serve as the standard to be met for all courses requiring CEU (CONTINUING EDUCATION UNITS) credits. The awardee will develop an implementation plan detailing how it will assist in meeting the goals of the national food/feed training system. The plan will address the resources necessary to support the awardee's activities. Information such as budget, staffing, record retention and storage will be addressed in the plan. The plan will serve as a focal point for administrative functions, including, but not limited to, administering the registration of students and assisting in the maintenance of training records. Included in the plan will be the type of learning management system envisioned and the security and integrity measures needed to implement the system nationwide. The awardee will develop and maintain an inventory of available food/feed training courses. All courses listed will be required to have course objectives and must meet specific competencies and tasks identified in an existing core curriculum or national standard. Each course will be identified as far as the specific core curriculum or standard being addressed and the level it is addressing (Entry, Journeyman, Specialist/Expert). The awardee will develop an application process for qualifying courses in accordance with the quality standards. This will allow the awardee to identify "Best Training Programs". The awardee will review the courses based on the application process to identify those that meet the quality standard. Courses listed in the inventory will address: Food GMPs, Food Security, Food Sanitation, Manufacturing Food Standards, and Retail Food Standards, the manufacturing of Low Acid Canned Food Products, Acidified Food Products, and Seafood HACCP. The awardee will maintain a list of training courses that meet the quality standard. The courses will list the specific competencies and tasks covered by the appropriate curriculum. The awardee will identify those training courses in the inventory that could be offered through distance learning. This would also include courses that could be shortened as far as face to face time by the incorporation of distance learning. The awardee will address how the information would be marketed and delivered nationwide and will include the estimated resource costs. This distance learning plan should be consistent with the blended learning approach outlined in FDA's "Visionary Plan for Food Safety Training and Certification". The awardee will work with FDA and other partners to identify the core competencies and job tasks associated with food safety inspections at the basic, journeyman, and specialty/expert levels. Once identified The awardee will use the information to ensure that their approved training courses are appropriate for the specific competencies and tasks required. The awardee will identify core competencies and tasks that are not covered by approved existing training. Once the gaps are identified the awardee will work with FDA to identify and/or develop the necessary courses to address the gap(s). The quality standard developed by the awardee will provide qualifications for instructors. Qualified instructors must be knowledgeable/technically competent in specific fields of expertise as dictated by the course objectives identified in the blue print for the training course being presented. The awardee will maintain a list or registry of qualified instructors by subject area. The awardee will maintain a list of approved training courses and instructors. The list will be published and made readily available for Federal, State, local and tribal Food Safety personnel, when requested. **Awardees are required to accept and implement the common protocol and procedures approved by the FDA" The primary focus of the awardee/FDA collaborative venture is to design, develop and disseminate food/feed safety training programs that are consistent with the Manufactured and Retail Food Standards, as well as 3rd party criteria for accreditation. This collaborative venture will have a special emphasis on public health safety according to the needs of the FDA and our regulatory and public health counterparts. The primary areas of training will be technical and management areas. If the IFSS training program is to be successful, there must be a recognized standard curriculum that every Federal, State, local, tribal and territorial public health agency should have access to and complete. This cooperative agreement will define the necessary projects, quarterly updates, continued partnerships with academia, and trade organizations for continued FDA and awardee collaboration toward a fully functional national integrated food safety training program. This cooperative agreement will also provide continued support with the result that FDA and awardee can: Design, develop, and implement the IFSS related to training and development; Develop a National Food Safety Curriculum at all programmatic levels (inspector, management, leadership) and build/improve existing course contents to meet or exceed 3rd party accreditation standards, as necessary; Create networking and trust among members of the food protection community, a necessary foundation when developing a national integrated food safety training program. There is a growing need for food safety training programs with a specific emphasis on assisting in the development of a national curriculum at inception of the IFSS program. FDA is committed to the IFSS approach and the support of a national food/feed training program. This project should also incorporate, where possible, the requirements for training set forth in section 209(a) of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which is consistent with the IFSS Training and Certification vision.