Enhancing the Capacity and Capability of Washington State Human and Animal Food Testing Laboratory in Support of an Integrated Food Safety System

About This Grant

RFA-FD-25-007 Laboratory Flexible Funding Model (LFFM) Overall Component Project Summary The Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) Food Safety and Consumer Services (FS&CS) Laboratories Program is the State’s Primary Regulatory Human and Animal Food Safety Laboratory. The laboratory and the state regulatory program are willing to follow the LFFM Sample Guide for planning, collecting, analyzing, reporting, and follow up on LFFM samples. The laboratory is willing to accept and analyze samples collected by FDA or other states in the event of an emergency requiring surge capacity coordinated by FDA/FERN when the laboratory has the capability to perform requested analyses. The laboratory has worked very closely with FDA and other federal partners in past decades on several cooperative agreements, for instance, FDA FERN MCAP, ISO, MFRPS, AFRPS, BSE, RRT, Produce Safety, LFFM, and USDA MDP. As an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory, we’ve had a quality management system in place since 2011 with dedicated quality assurance staff and procedures in place to ensure good laboratory practices. Currently, there are 16 methods under the ISO scope. We have state-of-the-art adequate laboratory facilities to assure the proper environment for advanced instrumentation in addition to secure sample custody and laboratory space. The FS&CS Laboratories Program is willing and able to participate in the following 5 project areas: (1) Discipline A Microbiology Track 1: Human Food Product Testing (500+ Tier) (2) Discipline A Microbiology Track 2: NARMS Product Testing (3) Discipline A Microbiology Track 4: Whole Genome Sequencing – Maintenance (4) Discipline A Microbiology Track 7: Method Development/Validation (5) Discipline A Microbiology Track 8: Capability/Capacity Development The laboratory Program is located in a strategic geographic area of the United States. Washington State is home to several major international shipping ports, through which nearly $18.5 billion in food and agricultural products were exported in 2023. The Port of Seattle, the state’s largest city and port, is the gateway port for all Asian and Canadian trade. The FS&CS Laboratory is eager to be one of the Laboratory Flexible Funding Model funded laboratories. The laboratory is committed to working with the state regulatory programs (e.g. Food Safety Program) in taking innovative steps toward a fully integrated human and animal food safety system. We also continue to be very appreciative of our federal grantor’s support in this endeavor and look forward to our collaborative work in the future. Washington State Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Consumer Services Laboratory