(FDA: Rockville, MD) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently announced that it has awarded 83 grants for the 2009 fiscal year totaling $17.5 million to state and local regulatory agencies to boost food and feed safety initiatives among federal, state, and local partners. The grants fund major cooperative agreements in four major areas: response, intervention, innovation, and prevention.

"These cooperative agreements support and enhance local food safety efforts," says Michael Chappell, the FDA's acting associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. "The grants are another step in the FDA’s continuing efforts to build an integrated food safety system between federal, state, and local partners."

The grants and their recipients include the following.

Response:  Rapid Response Teams

The Food Protection Rapid Response Team (RRT) and Program Infrastructure Improvement Prototype Project cooperative agreements will develop, implement, exercise, and integrate an all-hazards food and food-borne illness response capability to more rapidly react to potential threats to our food supply. The RRT, designed to operate in conjunction with other food and feed agencies within state programs, other state RRTs, FDA district offices, and state emergency operations centers, is another tool to enhance response capabilities.

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