RTI International has been awarded a five-year contract that could be worth more than $5 million to examine how to better protect the food supply.
The award from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration comes after a number of public food scares, from the ongoing salmonella outbreak to fears over tainted lettuce, green onions and spinach. The FDA has come under fire for its handling of some of those situations - including the ongoing salmonella outbreak in tomatoes, in which the FDA is yet to pinpoint the specific source of the contamination.
Under terms of its deal with the FDA, RTI will develop models for ranking food-related threats to public health. It also will help prioritize research and determine the best ways to minimize the health risks of eating fresh produce and shellfish, a statement says.
"The models that RTI develops will provide FDA with a new set of tools with which to conduct these evaluations," RTI's Amir Mokhtari, lead modeler for the project, said in a statement.
Lee-Ann Jaykus, a food safety researcher at North Carolina State University, will join the RTI team as part of a one-year sabbatical from NCSU. Jaykus has almost 20 years of experience working on food safety, RTI says.
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