| USDA
awarded more than $12 million to 19 U.S. colleges and universities
through the National Integrated Food Safety Initiative.
“The selection of these projects supports the Bush Administration's
efforts to enhance the protection and safety of agriculture
and the food supply,” USDA Secretary Ann Veneman said. “Targeted
research is one of several key initiatives we are implementing
to enhance food safety and improve food inspection systems.”
The projects were selected for funding under USDA's unified
food safety research agenda announced November 2003, to
improve the efficiency and effectiveness of food safety
programs, USDA said in a release. The unified agenda prioritizes
research needs and maximizes use of available resources
and involves coordination among the Food Safety and Inspection
Service, the Agricultural Research Service, and the Cooperative
State Research, Education and Extension Service.
FSIS
does not conduct its own research. Rather, the Agency identifies
research necessary to fulfill its public health mission.
ARS is USDA's chief in-house scientific research agency
and CSREES is USDA's chief research funding agency.
The
purpose of the NIFSI, which is managed by CSREES, is to
support competitive projects that address priority issues
in food safety that are best solved using an integrated
approach. These projects address a broad spectrum of food
safety concerns from on-farm production, post-harvest processing
and distribution, to food selection, preparation and consumption.
The grants make sure that food safety information is passed
on to people who operate various parts of the food chain.
Twenty-six
grants have been awarded for Fiscal Year 2004. Each year
NIFSI awards these funds to faculty at land-grant and non-land
grant colleges and universities to ensure that valuable
research, education and extension knowledge is transferred
to teachers, scientists, health professionals, researchers,
farmers, food processors, foodservice workers, consumers
and all others making crucial decisions about the safety
of the U.S. food supply. An average of approximately $630,000
was awarded to each university to support integrated food
safety projects.
Some
of the colleges and universities receiving the grants were:
*
University of California, Davis: $600,000 for studying
how to reduce the use of antibiotics in calves.
*
Colorado State University: $489,527 for studying the effect
of transportation and lairage on E. coli O157
and Salmonella spp. on beef cattle.
*
Colorado State University: $597,481 for Listeria monocytogenes
in ready-to-eat meat products: Risks, controls,
and education for prevention.
*
University of Delaware: $450,205 to study inactivation
of viruses by pressure in ready-to-eat foods.
*
Iowa State University: $599,126 for studying southeast
Iowa's food safety and animal handling procedures for
meat processors and livestock producers.
*
Kansas State University: $482,763 for improving food safety
practices of restaurant employees using the theory of
planned behavior.
*
University of Maryland School of Medicine: $600,000 for
the development of computer models for ranking the public
health impact of foodborne hazards.
*
University of Nebraska: $599,732 for validating and implementing
Listeria monocytogenes controls in ready-to-eat
meat products produced by rural meat and poultry operations
in the Great Plains.
*
University of Nebraska: $599,916 for HACCP assistance
of small and very small processors with development and
validation of safe meat-chilling processes.
*
Cornell University: $599,823 for computer-aided food safety
engineering.
*
Ohio State University: $436,189 for safety of food processed
by four alternative processing technologies.
*
Clemson University: $33,150 for a conference, “Food Safety
from the Surface Up”.
*
Tennessee State University: $597,890 for characterizing
consumer handling, storage, and use of product labels
and dates to develop risk communication messages for ready-to-eat
foods.
*
Texas A&M University: $328,357 for improving the safety
of complex foods using electron beam technology.
*
University of Wisconsin: $600,000 for HACCP assistance
for small and very small meat processors: Challenge studies
and predictive modeling for validation of critical limits.
|
