Congressional and Public Affairs
(202) 720-9113
Bridgette Keefe

WASHINGTON, Nov. 14, 2005 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) today announced that more than $2.5 million in cooperative agreement projects were recently awarded to academic institutions, non-profit organizations and federal and state government agencies in fiscal year 2005.

The cooperative agreements will support efforts to continually seek new ideas and strategies to protect public health by reducing the incidence of foodborne illnesses associated with meat, poultry and egg products and by protecting the food supply from intentional acts of contamination. Work products developed under these cooperative agreements will be available for public use nationwide.

The cooperative agreements will support five areas:

• 18 projects will support integration of data at the federal, state and local level to augment the food defense capability of the Food Emergency Response Network;
• 10 projects will support applications of new technologies that will permit small and very small meat, poultry, and egg product establishments to produce safer products;
• Eight projects will support improvements in food animal production, transportation and marketing;
• Eight projects will support retail stores, food, service establishments and other inspection-exempt enterprises subject to state, local or tribal regulations that process or otherwise handle meat, poultry and egg products; and
• Five projects will support small and very small federally and state-inspected establishments to improve food safety training and education.

Among the cooperative agreements awarded include projects proposed by: the Hawaii Department of Health, Virginia Division of Consolidated Lab Services; the South Dakota Animal Industry Board; the Winrock International Foundation; the Association of Food and Drug Officials; Langston University; Ohio State University and Texas Tech University.

For further information on the cooperative agreements and awards, visit the FSIS Web site at www.fsis.usda.gov.