FDA Announce Awards of Cooperative Agreement Program to Advance Retail Food Safety

Constituent Update

July 15, 2021

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is pleased to announce the partnership between 

the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and National Association of County and 

City Health Officials (NACCHO) as part of the “Advancing Conformance with the Voluntary 

National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS) by State, Local, Tribal, and 

Territorial (SLTT) Retail Food Regulatory Agencies” Cooperative Agreement awarded to NEHA. 

NEHA will receive up to $40 million over 3 years to directly support the Agency’s efforts to 

modernize the nation’s retail food protection program and advance conformance with the 

VNRFRPS. The VNRFRPS define what constitutes a highly effective and responsive program for 

the regulation of foodservice and retail food establishments. 

The partnership between NEHA and NACCHO will continue the tremendously successful 

mentorship program that NACCHO has overseen since 2012. The mentorship program 

connects retail food regulatory program practitioners who are experienced in applying the 

VNRFRPS with those who are newly enrolled and looking for peer-to-peer assistance, resources, 

and recommendations for achieving specific standards. Experienced retail food regulatory 

programs advise participating agencies on how to start and best apply the Retail Standards to 

improve their programs. Mentees also gain insight on developing and implementing policies 

and procedures, completing self-assessments, and conducting verification audits. Resources 

and tools developed by program participants are shared with other regulatory programs.

“Peer to peer mentoring is an effective form of capacity building” said Dr. David Dyjack, NEHA 

CEO. “We are fortunate to collaborate with NACCHO to build upon their track record of 

excellence.”

NACCHO CEO Lori Tremmel Freeman remarked, “NACCHO is excited to begin work on this 

historic effort alongside our long-time partner, NEHA. With improved coordination and lasting 

relationships between these retail food regulatory associations and the FDA, we are looking 

forward to seeing a stronger and more harmonized approach that will support public health 

professionals leading our country’s retail food safety initiatives.”

Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has held multiple cooperative 

agreements with NACCHO for the previous Mentorship Program. Glenda Lewis, Director, Retail 

Food Protection Staff, CFSAN commented, “CFSAN is happy to see NACCHO continue to 

administer the Mentorship Program through the Retail Flexible Funding Model (RFFM) in 

partnership with NEHA. Through NACCHO’s longstanding engagement with CFSAN during the 

first 10 cohorts of the Mentorship Program, NACCHO helped to establish a growing network of 

retail food regulatory programs experienced in the implementation of the Retail Program 
Standards. CFSAN stands in support of the role FDA Retail Food Specialists play to assist our 

regulatory partner jurisdictions and the collaborative partnership between NACCHO and NEHA 

as this work continues.”

Foodborne illness remains a major public health concern in the United States. Foodborne 

diseases cause approximately 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths 

each year (Scallan et al., 2011). The annual economic burden from health losses due to 

foodborne illness is estimated at 77.7 billion dollars (Scharff, 2012). According to the Centers 

for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2014), more than half of foodborne illness outbreaks 

that occur each year are associated with food from restaurants or retail food establishments.

Surveillance data from the CDC have consistently identified five major risk factors related to 

food safety practices within the retail food industry that contribute to foodborne illness: poor 

personal hygiene; improper food holding/time and temperature; contaminated equipment/lack 

of protection from contamination; inadequate cooking; and food obtained from unsafe sources. 

Most regulatory retail food inspection programs throughout the United States monitor these 

risk factors in their routine inspections, and each necessitates specific food safety behaviors 

and practices.

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

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