Concerning: Evaluating and Establishing Prerequisites for FDA Classroom Based Courses

Whereas, state, local, tribal, and territorial food safety programs depend on the FDA Office of Training Education and Development (OTED) classroom based courses for training of their staff and;

Whereas, state, local, tribal, and territorial food safety programs inspect and enforce food safety laws and regulations in facilities that are subject to FDA jurisdiction as well as facilities that are exempt from FDA jurisdiction in federal statutes and/or regulations and;

Whereas, state, local, tribal, and territorial manufactured and retail food safety programs enrolled in the respective FDA program standards may be audited against staff training requirements in the program standards and debited if staff conducting advanced inspections have not successfully completed FDA training courses and;

Whereas, state, local, tribal, and territorial food safety personnel have been denied access to FDA classroom based training courses for failure to meet course prerequisites established by FDA OTED and;

Whereas, there is currently no representation from state or local regulatory agencies or association representing the interests of those agencies in the determinations of prerequisites for FDA classroom based courses, therefore be it

Resolved, that AFDO requests FDA consider incorporating a process for state, local, tribal, territorial and/or regulatory association representation and participation in determinations of prerequisites for OTED courses, to ensure that impacts on state and local food safety programs are considered during those discussions and determinations.