# A Regionalized Approach to Achieving Conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards

> **NIH FDA U18** · MELROSE CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT · 2020 · $70,000

## Abstract

This application is a continuation of the work being done by five communities in Massachusetts to
achieve compliance with the Standards. Our state is unusual in its delivery of public health in that each
of the Commonwealth’s 351 cities and towns operate under Home Rule with its own Board of Health or
Health Commissioner. It is a challenge to provide consistency in the work and quality of work
performed by local health departments which range from one person operations to the Boston Health
Commission.
In order to take advantage of the efficiencies of working together, two cities and three towns have been
working together the past five years on conformance with the Standards. We have created a Regional
Food Safety Advisory Group that meets twice a year with a range of businesses including full service
restaurants, school lunch programs, mobile food trucks, ethnic restaurants, and smaller “mom and pop”
businesses. Having a larger pool of businesses involved allows us a broader range of participants.
We have developed policies and procedures that are edited to meet the needs of the individual
community. We work together to brainstorm solutions and enact consistent regulations.
The business community has responded very positively to the work being done. Our relationships with
industry has moved from suspicion and fear to one of collaboration. They appreciate the more
professional and consistent inspections, not to mention the electronic inspection forms that they can
easily read (handwriting on paper inspections was an issue, especially for those that did not read cursive
or English was a second language).
Standard 8 has allowed us to use national standards to show deficiencies in our staffing resulting in two
of the communities allowed to increase their inspection capacity.
A successful grant application will allow us to achieve:
1. Completion of most of the Standards
2. Assisting three other communities who have been enrolled in the Standards to achieve
 conformance with additional Standards.. We have been informally mentoring three other
 communities in their work to achieve the Standards. This grant will allow us to use some of the
 funds to assist them.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10150172
- **Project number:** 1U18FD007039-01
- **Recipient organization:** MELROSE CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT
- **Principal Investigator:** Ruth Clay
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $70,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10150172

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10150172, A Regionalized Approach to Achieving Conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (1U18FD007039-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10150172. Licensed CC0.

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