Source: TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY submitted to NRP
PUBLIC HEALTH MICROBIOLOGY AND PROCESS AUTHORITY SUPPORT FOR TENNESSEAN ENTREPRENEURS
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
OTHER GRANTS
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030862
Grant No.
2023-70020-40768
Cumulative Award Amt.
$299,995.00
Proposal No.
2023-03025
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Sep 15, 2023
Project End Date
Sep 14, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A4182]- Regional FSMA Center
Recipient Organization
TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY
3500 JOHN A. MERRITT BLVD
NASHVILLE,TN 37209
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
As a comprehensive legislation with over 50 rules, compliance with Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is now an important component of interstate and intrastate food commerce for an array of producers and processors in the United States. Along with the progress and finalization in implementation of various rules of the legislation, the compliance and technical support needs of the producers and processors are gaining momentum. FSMA compliance is particularly critical and disconcerting for smaller, hard-to-reach, and underserved operations as well as emerging/start-up entrepreneurs. Without food safety regulatory knowledge and technical assistance, these operations had to maintain only limited in profit and/or stay in regional markets in order to remain within the FSMA exemption "box." As such, our proposal is a multidisciplinary Community Outreach endeavor for: (1) Building capacity for enhancing the commerce of value-added commodities in Tennessee by process authority consultation and microbiological testing (2) Conduct of technical assistant workshops and annual stakeholder meetings. (3) Development of FSMA value-added commodities Toolkit and conduct of modified Delphi needs assessment for Toolkit's complementary resources. These efforts will be conducted in concordance, communication, and partnership with regional and national FSMA partners to avoid/minimize duplication of endeavors. With existing communication channels with regional and national centers, expanding county operation and outreach infrastructure, access to small, niche, and hard-to-reach stakeholders, and extensive relevant programs and recent deliverables, the project team from the public health microbiology program, TSU Cooperative Extension, and Albany State University are uniquely positioned to host this project.
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
71250101170100%
Knowledge Area
712 - Protect Food from Contamination by Pathogenic Microorganisms, Parasites, and Naturally Occurring Toxins;

Subject Of Investigation
5010 - Food;

Field Of Science
1170 - Epidemiology;
Goals / Objectives
(1) Building capacity for enhancing the commerce of value-added commodities in Tennessee by process authority consultation and microbiological testing (2) Conduct of technical assistant workshops and annual stakeholder meetings. (3) Development of FSMA value-added commodities Toolkit and conduct of modified Delphi needs assessment for Toolkit's complementary resources.With existing communication channels with regional and national centers, expanding county operation and outreach infrastructure, access to small, niche, and hard-to-reach stakeholders, and extensive relevant programs and recent deliverables, the project team from the public health microbiology program, TSU Cooperative Extension, and Albany State University are uniquely positioned to host this project.
Project Methods
Building capacity for enhancing the commerce of value-added commodities in Tennessee by process authority consultation and microbiological testing. Public Health Microbiology Laboratory in the last two years has assisted nearly 100 companies. However, the extent of technical assistance is limited by the availability of an individual dedicated to conducting the tests, and also the cost of the testing could be a barrier for small entrepreneurs. Hiring an associate will enable the program to continue this support and conduct more intensive testing for stakeholders at no cost to them. Based on the proof-of-concept work conducted in the last two years, it is estimated every year at least 40 entrepreneurs will be served under this objective (a total of at least 120 companies). This will be a one-by-one consultation meeting (in-person or via Zoom, based on the distance of the entrepreneur to our main campus). In each session, a presentation of about 15 minutes will be delivered to the entrepreneur that includes information about Food Safety Modernization Act and Tennessee Food Freedom Act (enacted in July 2022) to ensure the entrepreneur is familiar with the regulatory requirement for interstate and intrastate food commerce. The entrepreneur will then be directed to the website of services that include: On-site consultation with a process authority about product safety; review and correction of food safety and HACCP plans by a process authority; nutrient analysis (nutrition facts label); equilibrium pH testing; water activity testing; color assessment; shelf-life testing (natural and accelerated shelf-life testing); aflatoxin or ochratoxin testing; and microbiological challenge studies.All these services had been provided to entrepreneurs in the last two years. The priority will be given to Tennessean entrepreneurs, but out-of-state samples will be processed as well. Except for shelf-life testing that requires a longer time, all the testing is expected to be completed within 7 to 10 business after sample receipt. The target audience for this objective is companies of all sizes and from all states. The testing fee for emerging Tennessean entrepreneurs (define as those that are pre-revenue and are sending their first product to the market) will be waived. The number and demographics of entrepreneurs served, the category of their products and the services received by them will be reported to NIFA with ensuring the confidentiality of stakeholders' sensitive information.Conduct of technical assistant workshops and annual stakeholder meetings. Thanks to a recently completed NIFA grant (TENX-2017-07534), our program was able to offer five FSPCA workshops in 2022 (a total of 72 certificates) that was ranked the highest among 23 members of Southern Center for FSMA for deliverables in 2023. During each year of the project, we intend to conduct at least two FSCPA workshops (a total of 6 events) in Tennessee. Drs. Fouladkhah and Kabir hold the lead instructor status for delivering the FSPCA workshops. As part of the project data management plan, blinded demographics and evaluations of the workshop will be publicly available on our website. These include both continuous and categorical data collected after the workshop and then 6 months after the completion of the workshop. We have three mechanisms for recruitment of participants: (i) Social media of project PI that across all platforms has more than 1,100 members, (ii) Recruitment during the below-mentioned annual stakeholders' event, (iii) Using the existing email list of the supported entrepreneurs, discussed under objective 1. Currently, the email list of supported entrepreneurs has contact information of more than 100 companies from Tennessee (68%) and 17 other states. In the last five years, the Public Health Microbiology program of TSU has been holding annual stakeholders' events entitled "Annual State-Wide Competition for Food Safety Modernization Act, Food Safety, and Food Science." The events are a venue for stakeholders to attend the TSU FSMA booth for receiving existing deliverables and information about upcoming events and observing recent students' projects. Additionally, so far, the event has provided awards to 39 students from Tennessee State University, the University of Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University, and Vanderbilt University.Development of FSMA value-added commodities toolkit and conduct of modified Delphi needs assessment for toolkit's complementary resources. The toolkit will have three sections of (A) a roadmap to regulatory requirements; (B) Exemptions from Produce Safety and Preventive Control Rules; (C) How to start a food business in Tennessee. These sections will cover the information associated with the Food Safety Modernization Act and recently enacted Tennessee Food Freedom Act and discuss the existing exemptions of the program. Determination of shelf-stability and shelf-life, deciding whether a food is considered as TCS (Time and Temperature Control for Safety) or non-TCS, proper measurements of equilibrium pH and water activity, resources for the development of FSMA food safety plan, and the conduct of environmental monitoring are additional information of the toolkit. These pieces of information will be developed based on information existing in the FSMA clearinghouse (available at: https://www.foodsafetyclearinghouse.org/), resources and factsheets developed by the public health microbiology laboratory, and newly developed material. A special emphasis is placed on compliance in Tennessee including the recently enacted Tennessee Food Freedom Act that had created new opportunities for food entrepreneurs in the state of Tennessee since its enactment in July of 2022. The toolkit is designed to be provided to the entrepreneurs directly and additionally, an "Extension agent version" of the toolkit will be prepared that includes a 20-minute and 60-minute slide deck for presentations discussing general microbial food safety concepts and regulatory affairs for interstate and intrastate commerce. Extension agents will receive the toolkit after attending an in-service training conducted by the project PI. Six months after the dissemination of the toolkits, the extension agents (at least 20% of existing agents in TSU) are then requested to participate in a modified Delphi needs assessment. This will enable the project PI to determine the efficacy of the developed toolkit and the need for development of additional material. The modified Delphi approach needs assessment will be completed in two rounds where in the first round continuous and categorical questions will be administered to the agents to rank the effectiveness of all sections of the toolkit. Second round that is based on open-ended questions will be used to collect qualitative information about the existing section and the need for additional sections for the toolkit.

Progress 09/15/23 to 09/14/24

Outputs
Target Audience:The manufacturing and processing market is highly volatile- small producers' and manufacturers' profits could be adversely affected to a great extent when outbreaks and safety concerns occur anywhere in the country. In addition to the loss of productivity, medical expenses, and consumer insecurity, it is estimated that the annual cost of foodborne diseases alone in the United States is around $77.7 billion. In case of negligence from a producer or processor, when the legal and medical expenses could burden back to the entrepreneur, costs per case of illness episode could well exceed $100,000 per case. This could simply become an existential threat to the longevity of small operations in case of an outbreak or recall. As an extension, outreach, and technical assistance project, the target audience for the objectives of this project are companies of all sizes and from all states with particular emphasis on companies from the state of Tennessee. Additionally, students of our program and participants of relevant seminars and conferences are the target audience of this project in addition to the readership of our applied research peer-reviewed publications. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students and faculty involved in this project and in this funding period were able to receive awards and recognitions due in part to professional development opportunities provided in this project. These include: -American Public Health Association (APHA) 2024 Catherine Cowell Award. The award recognizes "excellence and achievement in administration, planning, mentoring, and team building in public health nutrition, including meeting the special needs of urban populations and young children," and is provided by Food and Nutrition section's of APHA. (Award Received by Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah). -1st Place, Poster Presentation Competitions. 6th Annual State-wide Competition for Food Safety Modernization Act, Food Safety, and Food Science. Tennessee (Volunteer) Section Institute of Food Technologists/Public Health Microbiology Foundation. April 24, 2024. Award Received by student JS, academic adviser Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah. -2nd Place, Oral Presentation Competitions. 6th Annual State-wide Competition for Food Safety Modernization Act, Food Safety, and Food Science. Tennessee (Volunteer) Section Institute of Food Technologists/Public Health Microbiology Foundation. April. 24, 2024. Award Received by student RK, academic adviser Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah. Additionally, students had the opportunity to attend several conferences and webinars as listed below, under the dissemination section. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Students and project directors were able to disseminate their deliverables in these events, in this funding period: 6th Annual State-wide Competition for Food Safety Modernization Act, Food Safety, and Food Science. Tennessee (Volunteer) Section Institute of Food Technologists/Public Health Microbiology Foundation. April 24, 2024. (7 students and Dr. ACF) Impact of Climate Change on Food Security and Crop Nutrition. Bridging food security, nutrition, and health issues webinar. Tufts University, the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 1890 Universities Foundation, and USAID feed the Future Initiative. August 29, 2024. (2 students and Dr. ACF) Public Health Microbiology Program Webinar. Local, National, and International Outreach and Technical Assistance. TSU Extension Campus-County Handshake with TSU Extension Agents and Specialists. Cooperative Extension Program, Nashville, TN, March, 8, 2024. (Dr. ACF). American Public Health Association annual meeting. Oral Session: Intersections of One Health and Health Equity, Atlanta, GA, November 14, 2023. Abstract: 535366. (Dr. ACF). Public Health Microbiology in the 21st Century Under the Landscape of Changing Climate. Webinar Series of National Board of Public Health Examiners. April 10, 2024. (Dr. ACF). International Association for Food Protection Annual Meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Poster Presentation). (3 students and Dr. ACF). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?FSMA compliance is particularly critical and disconcerting for smaller, hard-to-reach, and underserved operations as well as emerging/start-up entrepreneurs. Without food safety regulatory knowledge and technical assistance, these operations had to maintain only limited in profit and/or stay in regional markets in order to remain within the FSMA exemption "box." As such, our proposal is a multidisciplinary Community Outreach endeavor for: (1) Building capacity for enhancing the commerce of value-added commodities in Tennessee by process authority consultation and microbiological testing (2) Conduct of technical assistant workshops and annual stakeholder meetings. (3) Development of FSMA value-added commodities Toolkit and conduct of modified Delphi needs assessment for Toolkit's complementary resources. These efforts will be continued in concordance, communication, and partnership with regional and national FSMA partners to avoid/minimize duplication of endeavors. With existing communication channels with regional and national centers, expanding county operation and outreach infrastructure, access to small, niche, and hard-to-reach stakeholders, and extensive relevant programs and recent deliverables, the project team from the public health microbiology program and TSU Cooperative Extension will continue this project as proposed without any major changes in progress and deliverables.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? This project was successful in surpassing the deliverables under all objectives. As detailed in the products section, this project was able to generate peer-reviewed publications and several presentations in prestigious journals and conferences. Additionally, an annual statewide event (April 2024) was held for our students, thanks in part to this funding support, that provided awards to seven students. The meeting had keynote speakers from the Disney food safety team and Association of Food and Drug officials and more information about the event could be accessed at: https://publichealthmicrobiology.education/annual-competitions During the course of this funding period, two FSPCA workshops were held (Sole and Lead Instructor Dr. Aliyar Cyrus Fouladkhah) providing certification for 27 individuals. In this funding period, 53 companies received one-on-one consultation from the project director for meeting the regulatory requirements of interstate and intrastate food commerce. Each of these 53 companies are separate companies each receiving support for one or multiple products. Among these, 54.7% were from the state of Tennessee, and the rest were from MS, KY, GA, AL, MT, MO, FL, WI, NE, CO, and IL. And 32.0% of these companies were women-owned (or co-owned), 58.5% were start-up companies, and 28.3% were companies that returned with new products tothe program after receiving support in the past from Dr. Fouladkhah. In this period, the companies have collectively received $59,393.68 in testing donations to ensure the safety of their products. This project is providing education opportunities to a doctoral student and a research associate who both started their training in August 2024. One female and minority undergraduate student (DR) also received training and support during this funding period whograduated in Fall of 2023. Deliverables of the project can be accessed on the program website, available at: https://publichealthmicrobiology.education/new-peer-reviewed-papers

Publications

  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kafle, R. and Fouladkhah*, A.C., 2024. Effects of Thermally-Assisted and High-Pressure Processing on Background Microbiota and the Listeria monocytogenes Load of a Minimally Processed Commodity. Microorganisms, 12(9), p.1858.
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Published Year Published: 2023 Citation: Raut, R., Maharjan*, P. and Fouladkhah*, A.C., 2023. Practical Preventive Considerations for Reducing the Public Health Burden of Poultry-Related Salmonellosis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(17), p.6654.
  • Type: Book Chapters Status: Published Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fouladkhah, A.; Bagheri M. November 2023. Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Evidence-Based Decision Making in Public Health in Statistical Approaches for Epidemiology: From Concept to Application (Editor Amal K. Mitra). Springer Nature Switzerland AG. ISBN-10: 3031417836 and ISBN-13: 978-3031417832.
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Ringo, D., Kafle, R., Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Impact of elevated hydrostatic pressure for improving extraction and inactivation of fungal secondary metabolites of public health concern. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (PosterPresentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Geren, P., Schneider, K., Goodrich, R., Krug, M., Benge, M., OBannon, T., Jackson-Davis, A., Kassama, L., Chaverest, E., Rodriguez, C., Weese, J., Perez, A., P., Cureau, N., Crosby, I., Carter, C., Northcutt, J., K. Baker2, K. Johnson, B., Horton, K., Sarjeant, H., Paul, R. Balasubramanian, J. C. Rodrigue7, C. Rodriguez, L. Dunn, K. Stull, A. Harder, P. Priyesh-Vijayakumar, M. Newman, A. Adhikari, K. Fontenot, J. Silva, J. Anderson, F. Louws, E. Rogers, O. Simmons, L. Johnson, B. Chapman, K. Butz, R. Jadeja, R. Holcomb, W. McGlynn, L. Branderberger, L. Orellana, M. Plaza, J. La torre, E. Negron, J. Zamora, C. Rosario, A. Wszelaki, M. Morgan, R. Williams, Fouladkhah, A., C., T. Taylor, A. Castillo, J. Masabni, B. Vaughan, F. Malekian, C. Triche, L. K. Strawn, A. Vallotton, J. Eifert, V. Yemmireddy, T. Tolen, J. Dawson, M. Danyluk. Evaluation of the Southern Center For FSMA Training And Lead Regional Coordination Center. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Poster Presentation).
  • Type: Journal Articles Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kafle, R., Chowdhury, S., Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Impact of nisin on proliferation of pressure-stressed and wild-type Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria innocua during a 5-week real-time shelf-life trial. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Poster Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Emerging Topics of High-Pressure Processing: Improving Efficacy of DNA and Mycotoxins Extraction and Biofilm Formation of Pressure-Stressed Bacteria. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Poster Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kafle, R., Chowdhury, S., Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Linear and non-linear inactivation indices associated with high-pressure processing and thermally-assisted high-pressure processing against Listeria monocytogenes. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Oral Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Thapa, S., Kafle R., Fouladkhah, A. C., Chen F. 2024. Developing a Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor for the Quantification of Salmonella Typhimurium in Ground Chicken. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 15, 2024 (Poster Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Kafle, R., Raut, R., Thapa, S., Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Application of repeated cycles of elevated hydrostatic pressure could improve DNA extraction, increasing sensitivity of standard and real-time PCR assays for detection of Listeria monocytogenes. International Association for Food Protection Annual meeting, Long Beach Convention Center, California. July 16, 2024 (Poster Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fouladkhah, A. C. 2023. Health disparities, biofilm formation, and epidemiological burden of climate-sensitive foodborne and waterborne bacterial diseases. American Public Health Association annual meeting. Oral Session: Intersections of One Health and Health Equity, Atlanta, GA, November 14, 2023. Abstract: 535366 (Oral Presentation).
  • Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Accepted Year Published: 2023 Citation: Fouladkhah, A. C. 2023. Frontiers in Application of Elevated Hydrostatic Pressure for Inactivation of Bacterial Pathogens and Endospores: Efficacy Augmentation by Mild Heat and Plant-Based Antimicrobials. 2023 Annual Meeting of International Association for Food Protection, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. July 16-19, 2023. Abstract ID# 31865 (Oral Presentation).
  • Type: Other Status: Accepted Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fouladkhah, A. C. 2024. Impact of Climate Change on Food Security and Crop Nutrition. Bridging food security, nutrition, and health issues webinar. Tufts University, the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, 1890 Universities Foundation, and USAID feed the future Initiative. August 29, 2024.
  • Type: Other Status: Other Year Published: 2024 Citation: Fouladkhah, A.C. 2024. Public Health Microbiology Program: Local, National, and International Outreach and Technical Assistance. TSU Extension Campus-County Handshake with TSU Extension Agents and Specialists. Cooperative Extension Program, Nashville, TN, March, 8, 2024.