| WASHINGTON,
Nov. 14, 2005 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's
Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced
that more than $2.5 million in cooperative agreement projects
were recently awarded to academic institutions, non-profit
organizations and federal and state government agencies
in fiscal year 2005.
The
cooperative agreements will support efforts to continually
seek new ideas and strategies to protect public health by
reducing the incidence of foodborne illnesses associated
with meat, poultry and egg products and by protecting the
food supply from intentional acts of contamination. Work
products developed under these cooperative agreements will
be available for public use nationwide.
The
cooperative agreements will support five areas:
- 18 projects will support
integration of data at the federal, state and local
level to augment the food defense capability of the
Food Emergency Response Network;
- 10 projects will support
applications of new technologies that will permit small
and very small meat, poultry, and egg product establishments
to produce safer products;
- Eight projects will
support improvements in food animal production, transportation
and marketing;
- Eight projects will
support retail stores, food, service establishments
and other inspection-exempt enterprises subject to state,
local or tribal regulations that process or otherwise
handle meat, poultry and egg products; and
- Five projects will support
small and very small federally and state-inspected establishments
to improve food safety training and education.
Among
the cooperative agreements awarded include projects proposed
by: the Hawaii Department of Health, Virginia Division of
Consolidated Lab Services; the South Dakota Animal Industry
Board; the Winrock International Foundation; the Association
of Food and Drug Officials; Langston University; Ohio State
University and Texas Tech University.
For
further information on the cooperative agreements and awards,
visit the FSIS Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov.
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