FDA Announces a New Cooperative Agreement Program to Advance Building an 

Integrated Food Safety System

Constituent Update

July 27, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pleased to announce the award of the Alliance 

to Support Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) Activities cooperative agreement to the 

Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO). This cooperative agreement will facilitate longterm improvements to the national food safety system by strengthening interagency 

collaboration, improving state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) regulatory and surveillance 

protection programs, and promoting the implementation of the Manufactured Food Regulatory 

Program Standards (MFRPS). The total funding for the cooperative agreement program will be 

up to $9 million over three years. 

The cooperative agreement directly supports the FDA’s mandate to protect the nation’s 

manufactured human food and animal food under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). 

Congress recognized that, with more than 3,000 SLTT food safety agencies, the FDA must work 

synergistically with other federal and SLTT partners, as part of a fully integrated food safety 

system, to protect the nation’s food supply. 

This cooperative agreement will help the FDA to continue leveraging AFDO’s strengths to assist 

SLTT manufactured food programs in their efforts to reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness 

risk factors, implement and maintain conformance with the MFRPS, and fully leverage SLTT 

food programs’ strengths to advance the regulation of the manufactured food industry. 

As part of the three-year cooperative agreement program, AFDO will work collaboratively with 

the FDA to achieve the following objectives:

• Support the efforts of federal and SLTT government agencies to build an IFSS.

• Establish systems for sharing, promoting, and collaborating on best practices, guidance 

documents, sampling plans, procedures, partnership agreements, and other tools to 

foster mutual reliance between federal and SLTT regulatory programs and public health 

agencies.

• Assist the FDA in the identification, development, delivery, promotion, and attendance 

of food safety and defense training and career development programs to support 

conformance with the MFRPS and implementation of FSMA.

• Support the advancement of MFRPS and the Manufactured Food Regulatory Program 

Alliance (MFRPA).

According to AFDO Executive Director Steven Mandernach, “This cooperative agreement 

provides important resources to support programs and systems designed to help SLTT 
manufactured food programs as they work to enhance their regulatory programs and improve 

the consistency and quality of their work through conformance with the FDA’s Manufactured 

Food Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS). These foundational efforts are critical as we 

continue to work together to achieve a nationally integrated food safety system.” 

In addition, Erik Mettler, Assistant Commissioner for Partnerships and Policy within FDA’s Office 

of Regulatory Affairs offered the following comments on the announcement of the new award, 

“Protection of the nation’s food supply is a responsibility that is shared across all levels of the 

government. This cooperative agreement supports building a nationally integrated, risk-based, 

food safety system focused on protecting public health. The FDA looks forward to continuing 

our partnership with AFDO to advance the MFRPS and reduce foodborne illness in the U.S.”

The burden associated with foodborne illness is considerable. The Centers for Disease Control 

and Prevention (CDC) estimates that, each year, 48 million people get sick from a foodborne 

illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. The FDA and AFDO are dedicated to the 

prevention and mitigation of foodborne illnesses, and the award of this cooperative agreement 

is another step towards achieving that goal. 

For additional information, please visit the Alliance to Support IFSS Activities webpage or email 

the Office of Partnerships in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs at OP.Feedback@fda.hhs.gov.