Association Of American Feed Control Officials, Inc.

Association Of American Feed Control Officials, Inc. (operating as Aafco) is a tax-exempt nonprofit membership association that receives federal grant funding and occasional purchase orders from the Food and Drug Administration to support animal feed regulatory training, standards development, and annual convenings for state and federal feed regulators. Aafco operates as a prime grant recipient (93% of awards) with one sub-award under the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Research Foundation, and does not hold federal contracts or contract vehicles.

Aafco is a voluntary membership organization of local, state, and federal agencies charged by law to regulate the sale and distribution of animal feeds and animal drug remedies. The association is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois. Aafco's federal funding comes entirely from the Department of Health and Human Services Food and Drug Administration, which has awarded the organization across grant and purchase-order vehicles.

Aafco's grant work centers on regulatory training and standards harmonization for state feed-control programs. Representative prime grants include a project grant for the 2022 AAFCO Laboratory Methods and Services Workshop (awarded September 27, 2022, funded by FDA Office of Regulatory Affairs), which provided hands-on microbiology training to state agriculture testing laboratories on detection, isolation, and confirmation of bacterial pathogens including Salmonella, Listeria monocytogenes, and Escherichia coli O157:H7 in animal feed. Aafco also received a multi-year project grant dated February 1, 2022 (ultimate completion January 31, 2026) for the AAFCO Advanced Inspector Training Seminar, which delivers regulatory and investigative training to state feed-program field staff covering investigative techniques, mediated feeds, and labeling requirements, with typical attendance around sixty state and federal inspectors. A third prime grant, awarded March 1, 2022, funded the AAFCO Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standards Face-to-Face meeting, supporting annual convenings for the 23 states implementing the AFRPS and FDA personnel across divisions to share best practices and discuss implementation challenges. Aafco also received a $17,550 purchase order from FDA on August 25, 2026 (ultimate completion August 28, 2026) to support annual meeting logistics including registration, food, audio-visual support, and materials.

As a sub-recipient, Aafco participated under a July 1, 2023 cooperative agreement sub-award from The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Research Foundation focused on strengthening the national animal food safety system, improving state regulatory and surveillance programs, and promoting integration of the Animal Feed Regulatory Program Standards through interagency collaboration.

Activity is sporadic — two awards in 2018, three in 2020, four in 2022, one in 2023, and one in 2026 — reflecting the episodic nature of grant cycles and training convening funding. Combined potential value across all fourteen awards is $18 thousand, though cumulative obligated dollars reach $877 thousand, indicating that many grants carry multi-year terms with annual obligation patterns that exceed initial ceiling values. Aafco's federal footprint is customer-concentrated entirely with FDA; no other agencies appear in the award record.