Center for Produce Safety Announces Call for Research Proposals

Woodland, California, October 20, 2016 - The Center for Produce Safety (CPS) today announced its 2017 request for proposals on food safety research.  The Center and its public and industry research partners will fund general and commodity-specific research aimed at addressing the fresh produce industry's food safety research needs.  $3M will be available to fund approved projects.

"The mission for the Center for Produce Safety is to provide and share ready-to-use, science-based solutions to prevent or minimize produce safety vulnerabilities. In an effort to address current food safety challenges the Center For Produce Safety endeavors to identify high-priority research needs and this year we received more research ideas than ever," said Drew McDonald, VP, Quality, Food Safety & Regulatory Affairs at Church Brothers, and Chair for the CPS Technical Committee. "The input and insight from the stakeholders has been incredible. Furthermore, I expect that the outreach and interaction through discussions and on-farm visits with researchers who truly want to understand the realities of our processes and products will result in even better proposal alignment with our industry's needs.  As in previous years we are soliciting proposals to address near-term research needs including Listeria prevalence and persistence, FSMA Produce Rule-related metrics, co-management practices, and commodity-specific needs as well as longer-term fundamental research and novel solutions."

The 2017 produce safety research objectives have been identified through solicitation of input from the produce industry as well as government and academic stakeholders.  In addition, feedback from CPS Symposium participants and reviews of previously funded CPS grants and research outcomes were utilized to identify research objectives. The research objectives have been reviewed and revised by the CPS Technical Committee.  A link to the complete list of research priorities is posted on the home page of the CPS website at www.centerforproducesafety.org.

"We encourage scientists that have an interest in partnering with CPS to contact us, ask questions about the proposal process, research priorities and CPS expectations of funded scientists," said Bonnie Fernandez-Fenaroli, CPS Executive Director. "The CPS Board of Directors and Technical Committee believe that open communication provides strength to the research process." Questions may be emailed to research@centerforproducesafety.org or call the CPS office - phone (530) 554-9706. 

To access the RFP Research Priorities and Pre-proposal Guidance document, visit the Grant Opportunities page on the CPS website.  Concept proposals are due by 12:00 noon Pacific, Wednesday, December 7, 2016.