Project Abstract The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA) is announcing the availability of up to $4,500,000 to be awarded under Limited Competition to State manufactured food regulatory programs. The intended outcome of this FOA is to advance efforts for a nationally integrated food safety system through the conformance and advancement of the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS) by State manufactured food regulatory programs. The MFRPS allows for the development of risk-based food safety programs by establishing a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of State manufactured food regulatory programs in the United States. By achieving and sustaining conformance with these program standards, food safety programs of Federal and State regulatory agencies can better direct their regulatory activities toward reducing foodborne illness hazards in food plants. Consequently, the safety and security of the United States food supply will improve. The program standards are comprised of ten standards that establish requirements for the critical elements of a regulatory program designed to protect the public from foodborne illness and injury. These elements include the program's regulatory foundation, training program, inspection program, inspection audit program, food-related illness outbreak response, compliance and enforcement, industry and community relations, program resources, program assessment, and laboratory support. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) Dairy and Food Inspection Division (DFID) licenses and inspects approximately 2,000 manufactured food establishments in Minnesota and delegates and oversees retail food inspection authority to 9 local health agencies in the state. The DFID has program responsibility for both retail and manufactured foods and has a staff complement of 50 for food related activities with 31 devoted to field inspection. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture, as part of this application, will maintain a comprehensive Strategic Plan that outlines the milestones and goals needed to gain significant conformance to the MFRPS by the end of Year 2 of grant period. This application also describes the creation of a Model Standard Operating Procedures and several other Standard Enhancement Projects (SEPs) that will serve as a resource to other agencies and jurisdictions attempting to conform to these standards.

Project Narrative The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) seeks to conform to the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). The MFRPS allows for the development of risk---based food safety programs by establishing a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of State manufactured food regulatory programs in the United States. By achieving and sustaining conformance with these program standards, food safety programs of Federal and State regulatory agencies can better direct their regulatory activities toward reducing foodborne illness hazards in food plants. Consequently, the safety and security of the United States food supply will improve. MDA's conformance with these standards will reduce the burden of foodborne illness in Minnesota and ultimately better protect public health. Furthermore, the development of Standard Enhancement Projects (SEPs) in later years of the cooperative agreement will allow MDA to contribute its expertise to enhancing and improving the Standards as part of a rubric of Continuous Improvement desired by FDA and inherent in the Standards.