USDA awards $19 million in food safety grants

The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) is allocating nearly $19 million for 36 grants to ensure a safe and nutritious food supply and while maintaining American agricultural competitiveness. Of that $19 million, more than $6.7 million will go toward antimicrobial resistance strategies.
NIFA made the awards through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), which is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill.
"Increasing food safety continues to be a major focus for USDA, as it directly impacts the health and well-being of all Americans," said Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. "Funding provided to universities supports discoveries of new ways that we can prevent foodborne illnesses and increase the safety of our food production industry."
NIFA made the awards through the AFRI Food Safety program to protect consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that may occur in the food chain, from production to consumption. This year, AFRI's Food Safety program is comprised of five sub-programs. The following projects have been selected for awards in each sub-program:


Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies


• University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, $149,000
• Tennessee State University, Nashville, $500,000
• University of Maine, Orono, $900,000
• University of California-Davis, $751,000
• Michigan State University, East Lansing, $700,000


Effective Mitigation Strategies for Antimicrobial Resistance


• Colorado State University, Fort Collins, $749,838
• University of Florida, Gainesville, $2,193,556
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, $2,250,000
• Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, $15,000
• Texas A&M University, College Station, $16,500
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, $750,000
• Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, $749,993


Identifying and Targeting Food Safety Needs


• Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, $50,000


Improving Food Safety


• University of Connecticut, Mansfield, $49,744
• University of South Florida, Tampa, $499,972
• Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, $499,968
• University of Hawaii, Honolulu, $499,516
• University of Maine, Orono, $150,000
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, $499,567
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, $500,000
• University of Nevada-Reno, $150,000
• Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, $979,761
• North Dakota State University, Fargo, $172,339
• The Ohio State University, Columbus, $50,000
• University of California-Davis, $499,812


Improving Food Quality


• University of California-Davis, $498,356
• University of Florida, Gainesville, $499,652
• University of Idaho, Moscow, $248,408
• University of Illinois, Champaign, $861,714
• Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, $465,694
• Iowa State University, Ames, $420,685
• University of Maine, Orono, $46,293
• University of Maryland, Princess Anne, $149,998
• University of Massachusetts, Amherst, $499,977
• Michigan State University, East Lansing, $489,528
• West Virginia University, Morgantown, $435,353
This year's projects include Washington State University's efforts to discover causes and solutions for AMR impact on dairy farms and calf-rearing ranches by researching the effects of different antibiotics on AMR prevalence, the existence of AMR reservoirs and niches, and the maintenance and spread of AMR throughout the farms and ranches. Tennessee State University researchers will focus on implementing a holistic roadmap for accelerating the innovation process in irradiation research, guiding technology development for contaminant treatment. West Virginia University researchers aim to develop innovative protein sources for the growing population by repurposing protein from underutilized resources, specifically the water-soluble proteins from fish processing byproducts that contain mineral, amino acid, and fatty acid profiles.
Successful projects funded in previous years include a project at the University of Nebraska to reduce the occurrence of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) along the entire beef production pathway, a development of microwave pasteurization technology at Washington State University to reduce pathogens and extend shelf-life of processed foods, efforts at the University of California-Davis to understand how pathogens survive on and infect fresh produce, and a project at Georgia Tech looking at new methods of Salmonella detection.