FDA Announces a New Cooperative Agreement Program for Building an Integrated 

Information Technology Infrastructure for State Regulatory Programs

Constituent Update

September 14, 2022

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

Integrated Information Technology Infrastructure for State Regulatory Programs cooperative 

agreement, RFA-FD-22-021, to the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO). AFDO will 

receive up to $18 million over three years to support the development, implementation, and 

maintenance of a regulatory data management system that will be utilized by our state, local, 

tribal, and territorial partners (SLTT partners) responsible for the safety of human and animal 

foods. 

This cooperative agreement will allow the FDA and our regulatory partners to work together in 

new ways by leveraging technology to share one another’s work, data, and actions. Robust and 

interconnected regulatory data management systems will advance our partnerships to ensure 

the optimal use of resources and maximize our food safety reach. 

FDA’s Assistant Commissioner for Partnerships and Policy, Erik Mettler, commented, “The FDA 

is committed to advancing efforts to build a more robust, data-driven, technology-enabled, and 

modernized food safety oversight system. Effectively sharing data with our regulatory partners 

is paramount in this effort to ensure a safe food supply across the country.”

As the FDA continues to help build capacity and capabilities for our SLTT partners, the system 

will strengthen collaborations across the human and animal food regulatory community to 

prepare, detect, respond, and prevent future foodborne illness outbreaks and other public 

health emergencies efficiently and effectively. Developing this integrated IT infrastructure 

together with our SLTT partners will accelerate us closer in achieving the vision of an integrated 

food safety system. 

“AFDO has been a leading advocate for an integrated food safety system for a quarter century, 

a multi-state and jurisdiction helps to realize this vision by promoting uniform approaches and 

best practices while efficiently using the limited resources across many jurisdictions,” said 

Steven Mandernach, AFDO Executive Director. “Further we see this system enhancing the 

ability to share data across jurisdictions and more effectively accomplish our public health and 

safety missions. Putting data needs and transparency front and center while bringing together 

the efforts of all stakeholders for the benefit of improved access, quality, and timeliness is key 

to making the Era of Smarter Food Safety Blueprint a reality.”

“This initiative exemplifies how state and federal agencies can come together and leverage 

their expertise and resources to develop a visionary tool that will increase response times, 

anticipate and prevent potential outbreaks, standardize regulatory efforts, and create 

efficiencies for our licensees and registrants,” says Hollis Glenn, Deputy Commissioner of 

Operations for the Colorado Department of Agriculture. “With this new data management 
system, food safety programs across the county will have access to cutting-edge technology a 

state or local agency could not typically afford on their own.”

For additional information, please email the Office of Partnerships in FDA’s Office of Regulatory 

Affairs at OP.Feedback@fda.hhs.gov.