June 15, 2007
(LITTLE ROCK) — Enhancements being made to the nation’s food safety system by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will mean grants for Arkansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin. In all, Arkansas will receive $1.7 million in funding and equipment to support its role in the new system. Cooperative agreements now in place at the federal and state levels will allow improved collaboration in food emergency response activities.
"We are excited to partner with these states as they perform such critical roles in ensuring food safety," said Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D., Commissioner of Food and Drugs. "The FDA is committed to investing in efforts that will better protect American consumers from food safety and food defense threats."
The three states each received approximately $700,000 to fund Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) chemistry laboratories for two years. In addition, they receive instrumentation valued over $1 million. FERN labs are essential to the FDA’s regulatory efforts and the grants may be used for facility upgrades, training in current food testing methodologies, increased laboratory sample analysis capacity and other activities.
In the event of a large-scale event affecting food or food products, the grant recipients may be required to perform selected analyses of food samples collected by the FDA or provided by other government agencies through the FDA.
Jeffery H. Moran, PhD, Section Director, Environmental Chemistry, with the ADH Public Health Laboratory, will oversee the program. According to Moran, the award will be used to increase the department’s ability to test for toxic and unknown substances in food products, provide regional support for national responses during food surveillance activities, increase state and local emergency response capacities and become more proficient in testing foods for toxic and unknown substances.
Media Inquiries: Pat El-Hinnawy, 301-796-4763
Consumer Inquiries: 888-INFO-FDA
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