Project Summary/Abstract The primary goal of this 5-year project is to renew a cooperative agreement for the continued support of the Western Center for Food Safety (WCFS). The WCFS functions as a dynamic collaborative partnership between FDA and the University of California, Davis, and also as one of four academic Centers of Excellence that support the mission-critical food safety and public health goals promoted by FDA. The long-term goals of the WCFS are five-fold: (1) conduct multidisciplinary applied laboratory, field, and educational research regarding the safety of agriculture production to generate practical solutions that can be implemented by the agricultural community and consequently, enhance food safety for FDA-regulated products; (2) develop and maintain communication with various stakeholders, domestic and international, involved in food production and food safety in order to identify food safety knowledge gaps and opportunities to leverage resources; (3) enhance technical assistance, community outreach and educational efforts through various venues, such as agricultural industry seminars, presentations, serving on technical advisory boards and industry or regulatory committees, publishing lay and scientific publications, and providing food safety education through local agriculture extension offices; (4) engage in multi-institutional research collaborations to ensure that FDA has the most current, scientific thinking on best agricultural practices across varying agro-ecological landscapes; and (5) assist FDA in implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act standards associated with the produce safety and preventive controls regulation.