National Alliance for Food Safety and Security

NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SAFETY AND SECURITY

The mission of the National Alliance for Food Safety and Security (NAFSS) is to provide the mechanism by which more than 100 of the most talented scientists and educators from among 21 Land Grant Universities (University System) can partner with scientists from Federal government agencies, industry, industry associations, and private research laboratories in meeting this country's long and short term food safety and security objectives.

• Auburn University
• University of Arkansas
• University of California-Davis
• University of Florida
• University of Georgia
• University of Idaho
• University of Illinois
• Iowa State University
• Kansas State University
• University of Maryland
• Michigan State University
• Mississippi State University
• North Carolina State University
• The Ohio State University
• Purdue University
• University of Tennessee
• Texas A&M University
• Texas Tech University
• Virginia Tech University
• Washington State University
• University of Wisconsin

Partnership

Since 1998, the USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has had a close partnership with NAFSS which has greatly benefited both organizations. Because of its defined mission of addressing the long term needs of the food safety agencies, FSIS, APHIS and FDA primarily, ARS cannot easily shift to address rapidly evolving situations that require immediate attention, such as those relating to Salmonella contamination of peanut butter, E. coli 0157:H7 in spinach and Listeria monocytogenes in deli meats. In contrast, NAFSS is posed to address both the short and long term research and education needs surrounding food safety and security events.

NAFSS Research Centers

The National Alliance for Food Safety and Security seeks to continue the accomplishments achieved through its 5 Centers.

o Center for Detection Technology: focus is on the development of rapid (real time) technologies for faster identification and enumeration of infectious agents and toxins associated with foodborne illness

o Center for Microbial Physiology and Ecology: focus is on understanding those factors impacting the growth, survival, occurrence, virulence, antibiotic resistance, and genetic potential of microorganisms to adapt to and infect the human population

o Center for Intervention Strategies: focus is on the identification and development of effective microbial and chemical hazard prevention and intervention strategies that will facilitate the production of safe animal and plant derived foodstuffs

o Center for Risk Analysis and Policy: focus is on the integration of the information discovered from the scientific disciplines such as food microbiology, epidemiology and virology into the framework of risk assessment in support of food safety policy decision making

o Center for Education and Outreach: focus is on providing an integrated educational approach involving scientists, government officials, industry representatives, educators, and consumers.

Benefits of NAFSS Partnerships

o Pro-active collaborations to address immediate critical research needs using multi-discipline investigative teams composed of university, government, and industry scientists (food microbiology, virology, toxicology, epidemiology, veterinary medicine, food, animal and plant sciences, engineering, statistics, sociology, economics, and other disciplines which support risk assessment, management and communication)

o Conduct of national baseline studies for Federal government agencies and involvement in education and outreach activities directed to targeted clientele groups

o Unique relationships between University scientists and U.S. food producers, processors, retailers and consumers facilitating rapid response to food safety events

o Frequent consultations with research and education partners

Dr. Brian W. Sheldon, NAFSS Secretariat

Professor Emeritus

Department of Poultry Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC

P.O. Box 313, Fleetwood, NC 28626

(336) 877-1059 (H); (919) 215-3517 (Cell); brian_sheldon@ncsu.edu

NAFSS Website: http://www.nafssfoodsafety.org/