UNH Cooperative Extension’s Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) team received news that their collaborative grant with the New Hampshire’s Department of Health and Human Services was successfully funded. The grant title, “Improving public health through coordinated efforts among three state agencies to assess, educate, train and oversee the implementation of the FDA produce safety rule,” describes the purpose of this collaboratiion.
Cooperative Extension’s role in this project has two distinct parts: outreach and education to the New Hampshire agricultural community about the produce safety rule, and research on how the farmers and agricultural agencies and organizations think FSMA should be implemented in New Hampshire for the greatest impact with the least burden.
“Everything we do with respect to FSMA is a team effort,” says food and agriculture field specialist Seth Wilner, who is the principle investigator for this three-year project. “Catherine Violette, Heather Bryant, Jessica Sprague, Ann Hamilton and I work as a group to conceptualize, strategize, deliberate, write and edit as a team. This provides diverse approaches and perspectives to our projects and grants.”
The grant-funded work is scheduled to begin January 2017 and will last approximately two years.
“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is the opportunity to collaborate and partner with the key agricultural agencies and organizations around the state,” says Wilner. “We are all very excited about this opportunity.”
