The FDA is hoping that the prospect of $500,000 in prizes will spur the development of “potential breakthrough ideas” in foodborne pathogen detection—specifically, detecting Salmonella in fresh produce.
The 2014 FDA Food Safety Challenge was developed under the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010, legislation that authorizes federal agencies to conduct prize competitions to encourage innovation.
“We are thrilled to announce the FDA’s first incentive prize competition under the America COMPETES Act,” Michael R. Taylor, JD, FDA deputy commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine, said in a statement. “This is an exciting opportunity for the federal government to collaborate with outside experts to bring forth breakthrough ideas and technologies that can help ensure quicker detection of problems in our food supply and help prevent foodborne illnesses.”
The initial submission phase of the Food Safety Challenge, which launched September 23, runs through November 9. A pool of up to five finalist teams will then be chosen for the “Field Accelerator” phase; they will each be awarded $20,000 and given access to FDA mentors and a required “Boot Camp” session. All this is in preparation for “Demo Day”—currently set for March 5, 2015, but subject to change—when they will present their proposals to the judges (all federal food safety scientists).
What’s the FDA looking for? The contest calls for the application of “cutting-edge techniques to achieve significant improvements in the speed of FDA’s detection methods for Salmonella with identification to the subtype level in minimally processed fresh produce,” as explained on www.foodsafetychallenge.com. The agency is particularly focused on speeding or eliminating sample preparation and/or enrichment in the testing process, as well as novel techniques to achieve pathogen detection.
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