# Microbiology: Analytical Track 2: Human Food Testing

> **NIH FDA U19** · MARYLAND STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH · 2020 · $223,000

## Abstract

SUMMARY: MICROBIOLOGY ANALYTICAL TRACK 2 (HUMAN FOOD TESTING) 
Serious foodborne illness resulting from microbiological contamination of food is a notable and largely 
preventable public health problem. The overarching aim of this proposal is to contribute a 
comprehensive and integrated food protection laboratory hub to the national Food Emergency 
Response Network (FERN) that is capable of analyzing food across many diverse threat priorities. A 
cornerstone of this plan is human food testing for microbiological contamination. The Laboratory 
was awarded two successful FERN cooperative agreements that were used both to maintain the 7th 
continuous year of ISO/IEC 17025:2017-accreditation for our food testing environmental laboratory, as 
well as to strengthen collaboration with our in-house Sequencing Core to sequence whole genomes from 
contaminated food samples. This proposal now seeks to maintain this momentum by testing high sample 
numbers of diverse human foods. This planned strategy also leverages a strong and close collaboration 
with our in-house Sequencing Core. The proposal is focused specifically on the commodity/hazard 
pairs that the FDA has set as the national priority in PAR-20-105. Since the MDH Laboratories 
Administration is a human food regulatory laboratory and a primary servicing laboratory for the 
Manufactured Food Product Regulatory Standard, 15% or more of analyzed samples will be collected 
by trained Maryland Office of Food Protection collectors through this track.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10174011
- **Project number:** 1U19FD007084-01
- **Recipient organization:** MARYLAND STATE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** SINISA URBAN
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $223,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-09-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10174011

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10174011, Microbiology: Analytical Track 2: Human Food Testing (1U19FD007084-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10174011. Licensed CC0.

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