Thursday, September 29, 2011

NEHA Receives FDA Grant - 9/28/2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Rance Baker National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)
303-756-9090 x 306 (Mountain Standard Time)
FAX 303-691-9490
rbaker@neha.org
www.neha.org


National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) Receives Grant from FDA to Develop Regulatory Food Safety Training


Denver, CO, - The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) announced today it has received multi-year funding under a cooperative agreement with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to develop a National Food Safety Curriculum for the regulatory food safety workforce at all levels to help ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply. NEHA, in conjunction with Underwriters Laboratories (UL), sees this opportunity as a means to pursue a strategy to ensure that all food protection training is standardized, peer reviewed, policy and regulatory compliant, meets quality standards, and is updated on a regular basis.

Funding through the “Integrated Food Safety System’s National Food/Feed Training Program” will be used to develop a national food safety training system that provides knowledge and skills to regulators and environmental and public health partners at all levels of the government in a timely and efficient manner as well as implement a national certification system to help assure both comparable and competent performance of staff at all levels of government.

Funding through the cooperative agreement will support NEHA’s and FDA’s goals to establish the quality standards that must be met for both individual training courses and instructors. The funding will also support NEHA’s current actions in training food safety professionals to identify core competencies and tasks that are not covered by existing training. As a national association of environmental health and protection professionals, NEHA is uniquely positioned to deliver these programs.

About the National Environmental Health Association
Located in Denver, Colorado, the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) stands as a strong professional society with over 4,500 members in the public and private sectors as well as in universities and uniformed services. NEHA's mission, "to advance the environmental health and protection professional for the purpose of providing a healthful environment for all" is represented in the products and services offered by NEHA to advance the environmental health professional through training, education, networking, professional development, and policy involvement opportunities. The basis for the association’s activities is the belief that the professional who is trained, educated, and motivated is the professional who will make the greatest contribution to the healthful environmental goals, which we all seek. Learn more about NEHA at www.neha.org.

About Underwriters Laboratories
Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is an independent, not-for-profit product safety testing and certification organization. UL has tested products for public safety and written Standards for Safety for over a century. UL evaluates more than 19,000 types of products, components, materials and systems annually with 21 billion UL Marks appearing on 71,000 manufacturers’ products each year. Since the founding in 1894, UL has held the undisputed reputation as the leader in U.S. product safety and certification and is becoming one of the most recognized, reputable conformity assessment providers in the world. UL services extend to helping companies achieve global acceptance for their products, whether it is an electrical device, a programmable system, or a company’s quality process. Learn more about UL at www.ul.com.

###