Concerning: AFDO Training Proposal (Manufactured Food Training for State Agencies)

Whereas, PFP’s Food Protection Vision for National Integrated Food Safety Systems has established goals including: leveraging resources, talent, and subject matter expertise and enforcement tools to achieve the best public health outcomes; and ensuring that partner agencies have food safety/industry oversight programs that are comparable relative to public health outcomes through the implementation of agreed upon program standards, and

Whereas, the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Alliance (MFRPA) was established through a U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Cooperative Agreement with the Association of Food & Drug Officials (AFDO) to provide a forum for state manufactured food inspection agencies to review and recommend changes to the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) and identify and resolve regulatory program issues to help states meet the standards, and

Whereas, MFRPA members have elected a Board of Directors to lead the Alliance and help in identifying strategies for aiding state agencies in meeting program standards, and

Whereas, the MFRPA Board of Directors has established a Training Advisory Council to review and discuss concerns and make recommendations related to the delivery of training and education programs for employees of State, local, territorial, and tribal food safety agencies, including scientific training, training to improve the skill of officers and employees authorized to conduct inspections under contract with FDA, and training to achieve advanced product or process specialization in such inspections, and

Whereas, state agencies that conduct manufactured food inspections and are enrolled in the MFRPS have expressed concerns over capacity to respond timely and in an agile way to continuously changing or unanticipated state training needs and the availability and timeliness of training and education programs currently offered only by FDA/DHRD and other entities to support public health efforts, and

Whereas, AFDO has proposed to FDA a training model (Manufactured Food Training for State Food Safety Agencies to Support their Compliance with the MFRPS in a Nationally-Integrated Food Safety System) that addresses identification of training needs and delivery of manufactured food training for state agencies and proposes a system to provide Train the Trainer courses and qualify instructors where possible, and

Whereas, the MFRPA Board of Directors fully supports the AFDO training model proposal and believes that, if FDA adopts this proposal, it will help to address the training concerns of state agencies performing manufactured food inspections and will support development of a national integrated training program and mutual recognition of regulatory food safety programs.

Therefore, be it resolved, that AFDO continue to collaborate with and encourage FDA to adopt the AFDO training proposal and provide funding to support states in the protection of public health.