Stronger Partnerships for Safer Food: An Agenda for Strengthening State and Local Roles in the Nation's Food Safety System

Recent salmonella outbreaks associated with jalapeņo peppers and peanut butter have underscored the serious gaps and capacity deficiencies of our nation's food safety system. In 2008 and 2009, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials joined a collaboration led by the George Washington University along with the Association of Food and Drug Officials and the National Association of County and City Health Officials. This collaboration aimed to develop an agenda to improve food safety by formulating and expressing a modern vision of the role of state and local government in an integrated, prevention-oriented food safety system. The project identified gaps in policy and practice at the federal, state and local levels that inhibit fulfillment of that vision and recommended changes in policy and practice that are needed to enhance the effectiveness of state and local agencies in addressing food safety problems at the local, state, and national level. In 2009, the George Washington University released its final report entitled: Stronger Partnerships for Safer Food: An agenda for strengthening state and local roles in the nation's food safety system. This report describes the principal role state and local agencies play in the national food safety system as well as the gaps and challenges that currently exist. The recommendations express specific national policy changes that are needed to enhance and better integrate the national food safety system. This session will describe the key findings and recommendations from the report and discuss how implementing them will strengthen public health protection.