USDA’s National Institute of Food And Agriculture (NIFA) awarded 36 grants to enhance food safety totaling $19 million, including $6.7 million for antimicrobial resistance strategies.
“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."
The awards were made to protect consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that might occur in the food chain. The following projects were selected as grant recipients:
Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies
University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Ark. $149,000
Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn., $500,000
University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $900,000
University of California, Davis, Calif., $751,000
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., $700,000
Effective Mitigation Strategies for Antimicrobial Resistance
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $749,838
University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., $2,193,556
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., $2,250,000
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., $15,000
Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, $16,500
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., $750,000
Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $749,993
Identifying and Targeting Food Safety Needs
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., $50,000
Improving Food Safety
University of Connecticut, Mansfield, Conn., $49,744
University of South Florida, Tampa, Fl., $499,972
Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., $499,968
University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, $499,516
University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $150,000
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $499,567
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., $500,000
University of Nevada-Reno, Reno, Nev., $150,000
Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $979,761
North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., $172,339
The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $50,000
University of California, Davis, Calif., $499,812
Improving Food Quality
University of California, Davis, Calif., $498,356
University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., $499,652
University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, $248,408
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill., $861,714
Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., $465,694
Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, $420,685
University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $46,293
University of Maryland, Princess Anne, Md., $149,998
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $499,977
Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., $489,528
West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.V., $435,353
A complete list of project descriptions can be found on the NIFA website here.
