# Flexible Funding- Infrastructure Development and maintenance for State Manufactured Food Regulatory Programs.

> **NIH FDA U18** · OHIO STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE · 2022 · $450,000

## Abstract

Ohio Department of Agriculture Flexible Funding Project Summary/Abstract
The overall goal of the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Division of Food Safety (ODA FS) is to
achieve and maintain conformance with the most current version of the Manufactured Food
Regulatory Program Standards (MFRPS), which are intended to enhance food safety by
establishing a uniform basis for measuring and improving the performance of manufactured
food regulatory programs in the United States and help Federal and State programs better
direct their regulatory activities at reducing foodborne illness hazards in plants that manufacture,
process, pack, or hold foods. The participation of ODA FS in the Flexible Funding Model –
Infrastructure Development and Maintenance for State Manufactured Food Regulatory
Programs (U18) cooperative agreement will assist the program as it continues to develop and
maintain best practices for a high-quality regulatory program. In addition to maintaining
conformance with the MFRPS, ODA FS has intentions of developing a special project that
supports innovation and integration in a nationally Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) using
the MFRPS framework which can be shared with other programs.
ODA FS would like to develop an acidified training course as a special project. Acidified Training
special project portion of the FFM grant is to allow us to continue meeting our current staff
training requirements to include the Conducting Acidified Food Inspections course. We also feel
there is a great need to educate acidified manufacturers beyond the Better Process Control
School to gain better compliance with the acidified rules and requirements, thus furthering the
success of the manufacturers as well as supporting our goal of food safety.
ODA FS would also like to create a Shared Use Establishment (SUE) Program. This will allow
us to gain more consistency and direction with regard to the operation of SUEs. They are a
unique type of firm and the ODA feels that we can gain better compliance through the
development of rules that are aimed at SUE operators and managers, again furthering our goal
of food safety.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10459255
- **Project number:** 5U18FD006386-05
- **Recipient organization:** OHIO STATE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
- **Principal Investigator:** Terri Gerhardt
- **Activity code:** U18 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** FDA
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $450,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10459255

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10459255, Flexible Funding- Infrastructure Development and maintenance for State Manufactured Food Regulatory Programs. (5U18FD006386-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10459255. Licensed CC0.

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