After a Busy 2018, the Foundation Looks Forward to 2019

In 2018, the Foundation undertook an aggressive agenda by conducting three requests for proposals (RFP).  In the spring, the Foundation issued a mini-RFP to fill the data gaps in response to the Food Safety and Inspection Service’s revised Appendices A and B, issued in June 2017.

The revised Appendices A and B provide safe harbor guidelines for ready-to-eat (RTE) meat and poultry processors.  Appendix A was designed to help meat and poultry processors meet lethality requirements in RTE. products and Appendix B was designed to assist processors in meeting the cooling and stabilization requirements for heat-treated  RTE and non-RTE products. 

In July, the Foundation Board of Directors approved three research projects to address these priorities:

• Effects of Product Moisture and Process Humidity on Pathogen Lethality during Continuous Cooking of Meat and Poultry Products, Michigan State University
• Development and Validation of Dynamic Predictive Models for Growth and Toxin Formation by Staphylococcus aureus in Low Temperature Cooked Products, University of Georgia
• Validating growth models for Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium botulinum, and Bacillus cereus during cooling of uncured meat and poultry products, University of Wisconsin

Signifying the importance of this research, these projects are jointly funded by the Beef Checkoff, Beef Industry Food Safety Council and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association.

In August, the Foundation issued its annual RFP on key topics in food safety and, for the first time, included nutritional sciences and product quality in its request.  During this two-step process, where selected pre-proposals are fully developed for review by the Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee, the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services released the topics and scientific questions to be addressed by the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.  A supplemental RFP was subsequently issued to address relevant questions on the role of meat and poultry products in healthy dietary patterns.  The proposals submitted in response to the supplemental RFP were reviewed by the Foundation’s Research Advisory Committee and NAMI Health and Wellness Advisory Committee alongside the proposals in response to the annual RFP.  Several projects were recommended for funding and will be evaluated by the Foundation’s Board of Directors in January 2019.

The article and others are available in the January 2019 Foundation Focus Newsletter