The food
industry, at least in the U.S, should be elated to learn about announced funding
opportunities. These include the funding opportunities that are intended to
help small establishments in their efforts to comply with FSMA. You may search
for other US funding opportunities on this page: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html
The announced
FSMA funding plans appear to be terminable in nature which is a bit
disappointing. An ongoing funding arrangement is a better option to encourage
and support future operation startups. It is also likely that the grants will
be awarded to the more savvy establishments that are able to work the system.
This can be remedied through a careful determination of the criteria for
selecting qualified establishments and how the funds are administered.
Essential Qualification
Criteria and Administration Considerations:
Providing funds to struggling operations is
an incentive approach that needs proper implementation and management. This
incentive needs to be properly balanced to encourage those who deserve to be
encouraged and appropriately motivate those who would ordinarily attempt to
dodge or disregard regulations.
If the FDA, USDA or other government agencies
were to adopt the SSQA principles in administering funding opportunities, some of the
key considerations would be as follows:
- Remove politics from
the process
- Link the criteria for
receiving funding or grants to the inspection process and findings (such that
more detected deficiencies that are due to lack of
resources receive more funding or grants)
- Implement fair and
effective strategies that extend funds only to operations that need such
funding (with interest-free pay-back arrangements to help prevent the abuse of
the opportunities)
- To prevent the misuse of funds, don't give funds directly to establishments; pay for verified improvements instead.
- Optimize the positive
effect of the funding provisions and properly track the return on investment (ROI)
- Implement industry
collaborative contribution strategies to reduce the financial burden on the
regulatory inspection program by contracting, rather than expanding the food
safety regulation budget (Adopting
SSQA Principles should also assuage anticipated budget constraints for regulators
and the industry -
Questions about the SSQA concept and the
governing principles may be directed to the SSQA Development Team at: gcse@afisservices.com
Posted by
Felix Amiri
___________________________________________________________
Weina YU, Centennial College, Toronto, Canada 
