Comprehensive food testing to prevent illness and combat chronic disease

SUMMARY: OVERALL PROJECT The chronic disease epidemic and continuing exposure of Americans to harmful environmental toxins in their foods constitute a public health crisis. The last line of defense for protecting Americans is food testing for harmful chemicals and contaminating microbes that can cause life-threatening and life-long complications. During the prior 5-year cooperative agreement with FDA, the Maryland Department of Health (MDH) Laboratories Administration systematically built-up its food testing capabilities across nearly the full spectrum of current and emerging threats. Through diligent investment in people and resources, MDH Laboratories Administration has achieved major strategic advances that resulted in 18 harmful-product recalls, and most from imported foods. It now proposes to leverage these cutting-edge capabilities to test foods for dangerous contaminants with two areas of focus. First, MDH Laboratories Administration seeks to strengthen and expand its chemical testing of foods for known, and identification of unknown, chemicals. Second, it seeks to offer its comprehensive across-the-board testing capabilities, supported by its new direct electronic data connections for real-time reporting to FDA, to provide a low- cost means to shift large-scale food testing from grocery store shelves to ports of entry and domestic processing facilities. These state-of-the-art capabilities promise to ensure the safety of the food supply, prevent illness, lower testing costs, and combat the chronic disease crisis.