# The Potato Project-Implementing food safety strategies in retail food establishments in order to reduce the incidence of risk factor violations through training, materials, and communication.

> **NIH FDA U18** · COUNTY OF RUTHERFORD D/B/A HILLS HEALTH DISTRICT · 2020 · $69,000

## Abstract

The Potato Project
 Food safety is an issue across the state of North Carolina, as well as the entire country.
At the local level of government, environmental health departments are usually tasked with
performing routine food safety inspections to retail establishments. In order to make the best
use of time and complete a quality, science-based inspection, local level inspectors require
minimal tools to achieve and record temperatures of food products as well as a means of
recording those temperatures and the findings of their inspection. They are further required to
reproduce that information in an easy-to-understand report to the food establishment and
make the report available for viewing by the general public. By utilizing key software, this
information can be easily recorded and formatted to quickly achieve a standardized report that
details findings of the inspection, recorded temperatures, and intervention strategies to reduce
the incidence of risk factor violations in retail food establishments. It is equally important that
materials relating to the bigger issues found in retail food establishments be available for
dissemination by inspectors while in the field. Basic, easy-to-read, informational materials like
magnets, stickers, and cards can be easily distributed by inspectors, with the hope that food
employees will remember some vital details during their time at work. By obtaining this
software and these materials, our inspectors will be able to more easily review previous
inspections, run detailed reports that collect information about certain risk factor violations
while simultaneously creating an on-going data baseline, and reduce the amount of time spent
entering repetitive data; They will be able to quickly and easily provide basic, tangible
information to the establishment which ultimately will assist us in achieving a 100% compliance
of retail food establishment inspections per year. These achievements will provide training
opportunities for our local food establishments through a higher frequency of inspections, as
well as produce a safer, more informed, community.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10149109
- **Project number:** 1U18FD007014-01
- **Recipient organization:** COUNTY OF RUTHERFORD D/B/A HILLS HEALTH DISTRICT
- **Principal Investigator:** Jason K Masters
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $69,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10149109

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10149109, The Potato Project-Implementing food safety strategies in retail food establishments in order to reduce the incidence of risk factor violations through training, materials, and communication. (1U18FD007014-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10149109. Licensed CC0.

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