The FDA is offering this grant to advance federal and state cooperation and regulatory standards for animal food safety programs.

A primary goal of this cooperative agreement program is to facilitate long-term improvements to the national animal food safety system by strengthening interagency collaboration, improving states’ regulatory and surveillance protection programs for animal foods, and providing education, outreach, and promotion of the AFRPS. The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) gave the FDA a new public health mandate. The law applies to human food, as well as to animal food including animal food for pets. It directed the FDA to establish standards for adoption of modern animal food safety prevention practices by those who grow, process, transport, and store food. Congress recognized that the more than 3,000 state, local, territorial, and tribal government agencies involved in food safety, including animal food safety, must be fully integrated in FDA’s work to fulfill FSMA’s mandate that consumers be protected by an animal food safety system based on prevention and risk. This national integrated animal food safety system will ensure the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of state and federal efforts to protect the animal food supply.