Federal Cooperative Agreement Summary

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), through its Food and Drug Administration Research program (CFDA 93.103), awarded $590,000 to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture's Division of Animal Industries on September 20, 2025, with a completion date of June 30, 2030. This Cooperative Agreement supports the enhancement of Tennessee's human and animal food testing laboratory capacity to strengthen an Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS) aligned with the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). The award leverages the Technical Services Laboratory at the Tennessee Department of Agriculture to generate high-quality sample data that enables risk-based, prevention-focused food safety strategies for both FDA and state regulatory partners.

Under this agreement, the laboratory will conduct comprehensive product testing, environmental sampling, and analytical services across multiple commodity-hazard pairs selected collaboratively between FDA and the state regulatory program. Services include analysis of finished food products, raw ingredients, and in-process samples for human and animal foods to detect harmful contaminants, verify ingredient labeling accuracy, and support regulatory surveillance activities. The work encompasses regulatory testing, blinded studies, total diet studies, baseline prevalence data collection, and emergency response activities, with environmental swabs from food production facilities also analyzed to ensure consumer safety and support early identification of emerging food safety issues.