Hawaii State Department of Health State Laboratories Division Laboratory Preparedness and Response Branch Biological Response Section Discipline A – Analytical Track 2: Human Food Testing Project Summary: The Biological Response Section (BRS) of the SLD has been an active member of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN). Currently, the BRS of the SLD is the front-line for FERN in Hawaii. As a FERN Microbiology Laboratory, BRS-SLD is responsible for the rapid detection of microbial threat agents in food, provides diagnostic support in response to a large-scale food-borne outbreak and local outbreaks, and performs laboratory analyses in support of food security and surveillance activities. The main objective of this project is to maintain, enhance and strengthen the capacity and capabilities of Hawaii's FERN Microbiology laboratory in support of the nation's objective of building an integrated laboratory science system. By enhancing and strengthening the HI FERN Microbiology, we hope to provide useful surveillance data that will be added to the national data base with the aim of removing contaminated food products before they reach the consumers. SLD plans to test at least 250 commodity samples of interest for hazards that are of interest to the FDA (examples: Salmonella, STEC, Listeria). Additionally, SLD will continue its partnership with the US FDA San Francisco District and the US FDA Honolulu Resident Post to test for Ready-to-Eat (RTE) imported food products.