# Leveraging Local Resources to Regionally Enhance Food Safety in Berkshire County Using FDA Program Standards

> **NIH FDA U18** · BERKSHIRE REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION · 2020 · $69,950

## Abstract

Project Abstract
Each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts, regardless of size, is responsible for all its
public health services, including food safety. Providing the full range of professional public
health services is challenging for all communities, but especially for small, rural towns due to a
lack of access to a professional workforce and the costs of keeping inspectors fully certified.
The Berkshire Public Health Alliance is an innovative partnership among 24 jurisdictions ranging
in size from 150 to 40,000 residents in Berkshire County, Massachusetts who signed an inter-
municipal agreement in 2011 to share staff, services and grants. The Alliance operates by
leveraging resources including support from local Boards of Health, the Massachusetts Health
Officer’s Association, the FDA and others to regionally to meet FDA Retail Program Standards,
significantly improving food safety in this holiday region. Each Alliance member has the option
of paying for an Alliance supported online permitting system, but the annual costs have been a
significant barrier to town participation. This project will focus on improving existing online
permitting and identifying a more affordable multi-town online option for towns who are unable
to afford the substantial annual fees of the current town-by-town system. An easily accessible,
standardized permitting and fee collection system will help ensure a sustainable, regional,
uniform, compliant, HACCP-based permitting option for all types of food establishments.
Experience with online permitting has demonstrated that an online system allows Alliance full
and part-time inspectors the option of managing permit applications remotely in real time,
making the whole permitting system more uniform, responsive and affordable. Including a fee
collection option helps ensure sustainability. As a complement to online permitting, the Alliance
will work with a vendor to test and fully implement an online inspection scheduling and reporting
tool managed by a part-time Alliance administrative support person to manage the Alliance
permitting system and to coordinate and assign the Alliance’s seven full and part-time
inspectors who provide public health services throughout the 946 square miles in the county. In
addition, substantial assessment and training for Alliance staff, inspectors and local Board of
Health members will be used to ensure uniform, compliant permitting and inspection outcomes.
These related projects will support towns in working towards meeting Standards 8: Program
Support and Resources; 6: Compliance and Enforcement; 4: Uniform Inspection Program based
on HACCP Principles and 2: Trained Regulatory Staff.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10144568
- **Project number:** 1U18FD007007-01
- **Recipient organization:** BERKSHIRE REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION
- **Principal Investigator:** Laura Kittross
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $69,950
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2022-03-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10144568

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10144568, Leveraging Local Resources to Regionally Enhance Food Safety in Berkshire County Using FDA Program Standards (1U18FD007007-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10144568. Licensed CC0.

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