# A People-Centered, Technology-Driven, Scientific Approach to Advancing Conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards

> **NIH FDA U2F** · NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION · 2022 · $10,000,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
After decades of incremental changes to the food safety system, technological advancements
have ushered in a corresponding period of increased change for both food systems and food
safety. According to FDA’s most recent food safety initiative, the New Era of Smarter Food
Safety, many experts believe the pace of change will continue increasing over the next ten
years, perhaps even more than in recent decades. As old foods are reformulated, new foods are
created, new production and delivery methods are developed, and the entire system becomes
increasingly digitized, complexity for regulators is only going to increase.
The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) project entitled A People-Centered,
Technology-Driven, Scientific Approach to Advancing Conformance with the Voluntary National
Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (Retail Program Standards) is intended to:
 • Objective 1: Build and implement a Flexible Funding Model system to provide
 significant subaward funding to state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) retail food
 regulatory programs, to assist them in meeting the requirements of the Retail Program
Standards,
 • Objective 2: Assess and identify the retail training needs of SLTT agencies, and assist
 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in meeting those needs by building and
 establishing a Retail Training Pre-Registration System; and
 • Objective 3: Work with FDA to build and establish a National Retail Standardization
 Registry to better promote and track retail Standardizations nationwide.
These three objectives will advance the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) requirements
found in the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) and support the goal of building New
Business Models and Retail Standardization in the New Era of Smarter Food Safety.
By supporting SLTT retail food regulatory programs in their work toward uniformity and
encouraging increased active managerial controls, we will assist the FDA with their goal of
“bending the curve” of foodborne illness by reducing the number of illnesses and related deaths.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10401904
- **Project number:** 5U2FFD007358-02
- **Recipient organization:** NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID T DYJACK
- **Activity code:** U2F (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $10,000,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-05-01 → 2024-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10401904

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10401904, A People-Centered, Technology-Driven, Scientific Approach to Advancing Conformance with the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (5U2FFD007358-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10401904. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*