Washington State Food Safety Surveillance Project

1 WASHINGTON STATE FOOD SAFETY SURVEILLANCE PROJECT 2 Abstract 3 The Washington State Department of Health Public Health Laboratories (WAPHL) is proposing 4 multiple projects through this cooperative agreement that will benefit from the strong 5 collaboration between the Microbiology and the Environmental Laboratory Sciences 6 Departments. Projects proposed in this application span two disciplines for which funding is 7 available. The proposed projects will build on FDA investments in WAPHL capabilities in the 8 areas of Food Microbiology, Advanced Molecular Detection and Food Radiochemistry. 9 The projects being proposed by the WAPHL will be accomplished through the inner workings of 10 having a well-established organizational structure, management style, quality assurance 11 program, subject matter experts, a solid laboratory infrastructure, established sample collection 12 relationships, and long lived collaborations. 13 WAPHL have been managing grants successfully for over 25 years. Among these, multiple 14 United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) 15 and Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) grants have been funded. Currently the 16 WAPHL proposal includes projects that will be managed by the microbiology and the 17 environmental laboratory sciences departments. The laboratory has sufficient, equipment, and 18 personnel to support all of the projects proposed in this application. The laboratory also boasts 19 ISO accreditation for some of its radiation chemistry activities, has plans for expanding ISO 20 accreditation and has a robust and mature quality management plan for sections not covered 21 under ISO accreditation. The environmental sciences and microbiology sections also have 22 strong collaborations with several environmental programs within Washington State Department 23 of Health. 24 The collaboration within the WAPHL is a holistic approach by our Environmental Laboratory 25 Science and Microbiology departments here at WAPHL to work together in helping to create a 26 safer food supply for not only Washington State residents but also for visitors and other 27 consumers of Washington’s extensive food supply, and through the Food Emergency Response 28 Network (FERN), for the United States as a whole.