The Food Safety and Inspection Service is undergoing a period of rapid and fundamental change in the way it is structured and in the processes it uses to regulate a complex meat, poultry, and egg products industry. The focus is no longer confined to food safety issues within an individual establishment. The food safety strategy has taken a broader farm to table perspective. To improve the nation's food safety system, FSIS is making a significant effort to collaborate with other Federal agencies, state and local governments, academic institutions, consumers, and foreign governments. To make these partnerships effective, there is a need to have strong communications links and effective learning methods to help people understand the changes taking place and, ultimately, move successfully into a new and challenging HACCP and Pathogen Reduction environment.

The Food Safety Virtual University is not a place. The FSVU is an effort to utilize a rapidly advancing technology to deliver training and education in the area of food safety to a widely dispersed and very diverse audience. The FSVU will make it possible for almost anyone to access training and educational materials. The FSVU, for the most part, will be an institution without walls. Over time, students and visitors to the "university" will have a menu of programs and information available which will include

• formal courses and programs offered in their area along with information on where and how to register,
• information on satellite teleconferences that are offered nationwide,
• electronically formatted information and CD-ROMs that can be downloaded at no cost,
• on-line programs that will actually allow interaction with an instructor,
• a library of digital images, and
• a variety of self-study programs.