The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture says it will invest $14 million to support food safety research, outreach and workforce training.
“Ensuring that all Americans have consistent and equitable access to healthy, safe, affordable foods essential to optimal health and well-being is a cornerstone priority of the USDA,” USDA NIFA Director Manjit Misra said in a news release. “From research to education and training, the projects funded through these initiatives will work to reduce the risk of food contamination, develop food processing technologies, better equip small farmers for success, and much more.”
NIFA is investing $4.5 million to support research under its Food Safety and Defense Program, which funds basic and applied research projects aimed at reducing food contamination risks by developing methods and procedures to identify, detect, enumerate, reduce and/or mitigate pathogens, allergens, physical hazards or heavy metals in foods, the release said.
The program also funds projects that develop and validate innovative technologies for food processing, manufacturing, packaging, cleaning and sanitation to reduce the presence of pathogens in food and processing facilities.
Among the funded projects, Emory University in Georgia will work to improve produce testing. Laboratory tests for produce can detect virus pieces on produce but cannot tell if the virus pieces are infectious and will make consumers sick, the release said. The project will develop improved laboratory tests for produce, such as raspberries and lettuce, to tell if a detected virus is infectious. A full list of 12 funded projects is available online.
Additionally, NIFA is investing $9.6 million in projects under its Food Safety Outreach Program, which provides customized food safety education, training and technical assistance for operators of small to midsize farms and food processing facilities; veteran, beginning and underserved farmers and ranchers; and small-scale vegetable and fruit merchant wholesalers, the release said.
Among the funded projects is a multistate effort to build a University of Florida-led collaborative infrastructure in the Southeast to support Food Safety Modernization Act compliance training, education and extension office outreach to the produce industry. The project includes participation from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Explore the full list of 23 funded projects on the USDA’s website.
