National Alliance for Food Safety and Security

NAFSS will provide the mechanism to enable participating universities and the ARS to focus their collective scientific expertise and resources on the multiple components, issues and questions regarding all aspects of food safety. Frequent consultation with partners at government regulatory agencies by administrators and scientific personnel will be a major element of the activities of NAFSS. Collaboration within NAFSS will occur among its partner members, government agencies, producer associations, private industry and consumer organizations.

Research strengths within the NAFSS include the following commodities: muscle foods, minimally processed foods, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, cereals and grains, aquaculture, seafood and egg products. Disciplines in which NAFSS members have expertise include epidemiology, toxicology, risk assessment, microbiology, virology, medicine, clinical research and health outcomes. Food safety research priorities will include isolation and detection methodology, surveillance, emerging pathogens, traceback of hazards, risk analysis and modeling, rapid methods of pathogen detection, antimicrobial resistance, methods of pathogen reduction, intervention strategies, mechanisms of pathogenicity and food toxicology.

Food safety education priorities will include the various segments of the food industry: producers, processors, food service and retail establishments, government agencies and the consuming public. The universities comprising NAFSS represent a strong support base that will serve as the catalyst for delivering comprehensive food safety education and training to all clientele groups. A critical role of NAFSS is to provide an integrated educational approach involving research scientists, government officials, industry representatives and educators. Effective partnerships with community colleges and linkages with K-12 public school programs will allow NAFSS to reach the general population in an effective manner. The use of distance education will be an important component of this targeted initiative.

Inclusion of various federal government agencies will strengthen the ability of NAFSS to address improved inspection systems, HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point) implementation and training, risk analysis and modeling, as well as health, medical and epidemiological programs will be included. NAFSS will collaborate actively with existing advisory groups such as the National Advisory Committee for the Microbiological Criteria in Foods (NACMCF) and the Meat and Poultry Advisory Committee. In addition, emerging issues related to pre-harvest food safety interventions and global issues involving international marketing of U.S. products and importation of food will be addressed.