The International Food Protection Training Institute is an initiative of the Global Food Protection Institute, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization driving the adoption of food-protection policies and practices for a safer global food supply. Its mission is to improve public health and reduce mortality, morbidity, and economic costs associated with foodborne illnesses.
In collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. federal regulatory and public health officials, [1] and academic institutions, [2] The Training Institute delivers food protection courses to federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial food protection professionals. This training meets established U.S. federal food safety standards [3] and all costs associated with the training are reimbursed.
State and local agencies carry out more than 90 percent of food safety inspections in U.S. food manufacturing and distribution establishments, yet less than $1 million was spent on training in 2009, which is inadequate to facilitate any significant increase in capacity or equivalency at the state and local levels. Many state and local offices no longer fund travel for training their food safety inspectors due to budgetary constraints. The Training Institute makes its programs free for U.S. regulatory officials, reimbursing training and travel costs. The food training organization provides a blueprint for career-spanning, standards-based training curriculum that could raise the standard of food training nationwide. In 2009, The Training Institute was established after government, academic, industry, and national food safety groups collaborated, prompted by the melamine incident in 2007. Most face-to-face training programs are delivered at The Radisson in Kalamazoo, MI or at the office in Portage, MI.
The Training Institute received the 2011 NSF International Food Safety Leadership Trendsetter Award that recognized The Training Institute as a first-year program leading the charge in food safety leadership, initiative, and accomplishments. [4]
The Training Institute was endorsed by the FDA’s Partnership for Food Protection Training Workgroup [5] and started work on its goals, including identifying and cataloging nearly 900 existing food safety courses in the U.S.
In June 2010, The Training Institute coordinated emergency training for states in response to the BP Oil Spill. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] Nearly 60 officials were funded by The Training Institute to attend seafood sensory training given by expert responders in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This training allowed state officials to make decisions about closing fishing areas as well as evaluate the safety of seafood harvested in the Gulf.
The International Food Protection Training Institute's signature training program, The Fellowship in Food Protection: Applied Science, Law, and Policy, has received accreditation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The Fellowship in Food Protection program, established in 2010, is designed to provide experienced food regulatory professionals from all areas of food protection with critical-thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills within the framework of food regulatory science, law, and policy. Program participants take three week-long seminars over a one-year period, conduct research on food safety issues, and then share their newfound knowledge with colleagues in the food protection field.
By September 2012, more than 2,250 food protection professionals from 49 states and seven other countries attended training hosted or sponsored by The Training Institute.
In 2009, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation donated $5 million in seed money to create The Training Institute. [13]
The Training Institute received $1 million as designated in a 2010 federal appropriations bill which provides funding for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and related agencies. [14]
In September 2011, The Training Institute received a multi-year grant of $1.3 million per year for five years from the Food and Drug Administration. The funding assists the joint efforts by FDA and The Training Institute to implement the national food training infrastructure mandated by the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act. [15]
The Training Institute Advisory Council represents a diverse group of food protection communities—including federal regulatory agencies, state and local food protection agencies and associations, industry, consumer advocates, and academia.
Participating organizations include:
Association of American Feed Control Officials
Association of Food & Drug Officials
Association of Public Health Laboratories
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists
FDA’s 50-State Training Workgroup
Global Food Protection Institute
Grocery Manufacturers Association
Institute of Food Technologists
National Association of County and City Health Officials
National Association of Local Boards of Health
National Association of State Departments of Agriculture
National Association of State Meat and Food Inspection Directors
National Center for Biomedical Research & Training at Louisiana State University
National Environmental Health Association
U.S. Animal Health Association
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
The United States Food and Drug Administration is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food safety, tobacco products, caffeine products, dietary supplements, prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceutical drugs (medications), vaccines, biopharmaceuticals, blood transfusions, medical devices, electromagnetic radiation emitting devices (ERED), cosmetics, animal foods & feed and veterinary products.
Hazard analysis and critical control points, or HACCP, is a systematic preventive approach to food safety from biological, chemical, and physical hazards in production processes that can cause the finished product to be unsafe and designs measures to reduce these risks to a safe level. In this manner, HACCP attempts to avoid hazards rather than attempting to inspect finished products for the effects of those hazards. The HACCP system can be used at all stages of a food chain, from food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) require mandatory HACCP programs for juice and meat as an effective approach to food safety and protecting public health. Meat HACCP systems are regulated by the USDA, while seafood and juice are regulated by the FDA. All other food companies in the United States that are required to register with the FDA under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, as well as firms outside the US that export food to the US, are transitioning to mandatory hazard analysis and risk-based preventive controls (HARPC) plans.
The regulation of science refers to use of law, or other ruling, by academic or governmental bodies to allow or restrict science from performing certain practices, or researching certain scientific areas.
The Principles of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) establish rules and criteria for a quality system that oversees the organizational processes and conditions in which non-clinical health and environmental safety studies are planned, conducted, monitored, recorded, reported, and archived. These principles apply to the non-clinical safety testing of substances found in various products to ensure the quality and integrity of the safety data submitted to regulatory authorities globally.
Food policy is the area of public policy concerning how food is produced, processed, distributed, purchased, or provided. Food policies are designed to influence the operation of the food and agriculture system balanced with ensuring human health needs. This often includes decision-making around production and processing techniques, marketing, availability, utilization, and consumption of food, in the interest of meeting or furthering social objectives. Food policy can be promulgated on any level, from local to global, and by a government agency, business, or organization. Food policymakers engage in activities such as regulation of food-related industries, establishing eligibility standards for food assistance programs for the poor, ensuring safety of the food supply, food labeling, and even the qualifications of a product to be considered organic.
Signed into effect on 12 June 2002, the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 (PHSBPRA) was signed by the President, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Food safety is used as a scientific method/discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. The occurrence of two or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a common food is known as a food-borne disease outbreak. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to avoid potential health hazards. In this way, food safety often overlaps with food defense to prevent harm to consumers. The tracks within this line of thought are safety between industry and the market and then between the market and the consumer. In considering industry-to-market practices, food safety considerations include the origins of food including the practices relating to food labeling, food hygiene, food additives and pesticide residues, as well as policies on biotechnology and food and guidelines for the management of governmental import and export inspection and certification systems for foods. In considering market-to-consumer practices, the usual thought is that food ought to be safe in the market and the concern is safe delivery and preparation of the food for the consumer. Food safety, nutrition and food security are closely related. Unhealthy food creates a cycle of disease and malnutrition that affects infants and adults as well.
The Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition is the branch of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that regulates food, dietary supplements, and cosmetics, as opposed to drugs, biologics, medical devices, and radiological products, which also fall under the purview of the FDA.
The Office of Global Regulatory Operations and Policy (GO), also known as the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), is the part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enforcing the federal laws governing biologics, cosmetics, dietary supplements, drugs, food, medical devices, radiation-emitting electronic devices, tobacco products, and veterinary medicine products which may have potentially harmful side effects for the consumer.
The United States is the largest grower of commercial crops that have been genetically engineered in the world, but not without domestic and international opposition.
Adulteration is a legal offense and when the food fails to meet the legal standards set by the government, it is said to have been Adulterated Food. One form of adulteration is the addition of another substance to a food item in order to increase the quantity of the food item in raw form or prepared form, which results in the loss of the actual quality of the food item. These substances may be either available food items or non-food items. Among meat and meat products some of the items used to adulterate are water or ice, carcasses, or carcasses of animals other than the animal meant to be consumed. In the case of seafood, adulteration may refer to species substitution (mislabeling), which replaces the species identified on the product label with another species, or undisclosed processing methods, in which treatments such as additives, excessive glazing, or short-weighting are not disclosed to the consumer.
Michael R. Taylor is an American lawyer who has played leadership roles in the US Food and Drug Administration, agrochemical company Monsanto, and law firm King & Spalding. He currently co-chairs the board of STOP Foodborne Illness, a non-profit that supports victims of serious illness and their families in efforts to strengthen food safety culture and practices in government and industry.
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was signed into law by President Barack Obama on January 4, 2011. The FSMA has given the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) new authority to regulate the way foods are grown, harvested and processed. The law grants the FDA a number of new powers, including mandatory recall authority, which the agency had sought for many years. The FSMA requires the FDA to undertake more than a dozen rulemakings and issue at least 10 guidance documents, as well as a host of reports, plans, strategies, standards, notices, and other tasks.
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is the public health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that United States' commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged. The FSIS draws its authority from the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, the Poultry Products Inspection Act of 1957 and the Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970.
Pesticide regulation in the United States is primarily a responsibility of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). In America, it was not till the 1950s that pesticides were regulated in terms of their safety. The Pesticides Control Amendment (PCA) of 1954 was the first time Congress passed guidance regarding the establishment of safe limits for pesticide residues on food. It authorized the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban pesticides they determined to be unsafe if they were sprayed directly on food. The Food Additives Amendment, which included the Delaney Clause, prohibited the pesticide residues from any carcinogenic pesticides in processed food. In 1959, pesticides were required to be registered.
The Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration is a private nonprofit (501c3) organization, created to support the mission of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to help equip FDA staff with the highest caliber, regulatory science and technology in order to enhance the safety and effectiveness of FDA regulated products. Although it was mandated by Congress in the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007 to help support and promote FDA's regulatory science priorities, it is independent of the agency, with its own Board of Directors, staff and research agenda. The Reagan-Udall Foundation creates public–private partnerships to advance research in regulatory science, enhance medical decision making, and promote innovation. It also advances regulatory science through fellowships and other training programs, both for private scientists and for FDA staff.
Seafood species can be mislabelled in misleading ways. This article examines the history and types of mislabelling, and looks at the current state of the law in different locations.
Fisheries law is an emerging and specialized area of law. Fisheries law is the study and analysis of different fisheries management approaches such as catch shares e.g. individual transferable quotas; TURFs; and others. The study of fisheries law is important in order to craft policy guidelines that maximize sustainability and legal enforcement. This specific legal area is rarely taught at law schools around the world, which leaves a vacuum of advocacy and research. Fisheries law also takes into account international treaties and industry norms in order to analyze fisheries management regulations. In addition, fisheries law includes access to justice for small-scale fisheries and coastal and aboriginal communities and labor issues such as child labor laws, employment law, and family law.
Food defense is the protection of food products from intentional contamination or adulteration by biological, chemical, physical, or radiological agents introduced for the purpose of causing harm. It addresses additional concerns including physical, personnel and operational security.