The
Partnership for Food Protection (PFP) is a multi-agency collaboration aimed at protecting the food supply and public health through mutual reliance. The PFP is comprised of representatives from federal, state and local government with expertise in human and animal food, epidemiology, laboratory, animal health, environment and public health. It promotes communication and integration amongst partners and provides resources, risk-informed insight and best practices to improve the system that partners can use to inform and enhance their work to protect public health.
Laboratory Science Workgroup
The PFP is comprised of dynamic workgroups whose mission is to advance the integrated food safety system. The Laboratory Science workgroup creates resources that build confidence among stakeholders in the integrity and scientific validity of laboratory analytical data and facilitates regulatory agency utilization of this data.
Laboratory Best Practices Manual
The Human and Animal Food Testing Laboratories Best Practices Manual provides a set of tools, definitions and references that laboratories can use to improve their operations. It identifies essential elements critical to the quality of regulatory data. Documenting the quality of both sampling and analysis is essential to ensure the defensibility of laboratory-generated data. This document also aligns with the ISO/IEC 17025:2017 standard.
Compliance Checklist
The Human & Animal Food Regulatory Compliance Review Checklist is designed to assist a human and animal food testing organization in preparing a data package intended for review by a compliance officer for possible regulatory action. In addition, this checklist is structured to aid compliance officers in the review of data packages. Familiarity with the elements of this checklist will assist regulatory management, inspection and laboratory groups in planning their sample collections and analyses to ensure they can provide essential regulatory information. The checklist can also serve as a data package index to ensure that all necessary information is included and easily located. A Word version of the checklist is also available.
Major Laboratory Initiatives
The
Major Laboratory Initiatives repository captures information related to current national integration programs that contain a laboratory component. The workgroup created the respository to summarize current integration efforts related to networks and capacity building, laboratory quality management systems, and program-specific funding.
COVID Lessons Learned
APHL participated in a June 2020 webinar,
Managing Food Testing Laboratory Operations During and After a Pandemic, where several laboratory leaders shared their experiences and how they adjusted to the pandemic environment.
A Look Back on the COVID-19 Pandemic – What Happened & What We Learned compiles the various experiences human and animal food regulatory laboratories encountered during the COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic.
Food Safety Data Exchange (FSDX) Program
The Food Safety Data Exchange Program is a PFP initiative that contributes to the development of the Integrated Food Safety System by enabling electronic sharing of food safety information and data between the FDA, public health agencies and various regulatory partners. The FSDX Portal provides partners with a web-based platform that supports bi-directional information exchange.
FSDX currently enables collaborators to electronically submit contracted inspection information to FDA, search FDA firm information and conduct state-to-state firm searches. PFP recently worked to expand FSDX capabilities to share laboratory data between state laboratories and FDA. APHL collaborates with the PFP Laboratory Science and IT Workgroups to map laboratory data elements and test the capabilities of sharing laboratory data. This includes providing knowledge of data exchange programs, laboratory information management systems, state IT infrastructure and more. APHL staff work to maintain coordination between these two PFP workgroups in efforts to expand laboratory data exchange capabilities.