Wonderful Washington

“Having the Feed/RRP provides a close cooperation between the staff personnel who inspect food and feed establishments, as there are many areas where they are intertwined and interrelated,” Dr. Kashani says. “Not always is food safety achieved if a major component, which is feeding animals for production of human food, including meat, eggs, and dairy, is not completely considered. Having the Feed/RRP and FSP within the same division of the WSDA provides an integrated safety system to make efforts more effective and efficient. And as much as all of our regulatory programs strive to be unique in efficiency and effectiveness, these programs also strive to be consistent and uniform relative to other state and federal programs across the country, so industry and consumers know what to expect from Washington food products.”

The Feed/RRP has helped FARM stay abreast of recall notices and activities that greatly affect the state’s emergency food system, notes Kim Eads, manager of the WSDA food assistance programs.

“FARM works with approximately 500 food pantries and meal programs in every part of Washington State, to serve one in six Washingtonians in need of food,” Eads relates. “The FARM program also provides technical assistance to direct marketing farms across the state and has helped provide on-farm food safety training opportunities to small and mid-sized farms we may not have reached before.”

Task Force
The state, local, and federal agencies that promote food safety in Washington came together and formed the collaborative FPTF in 2012. “Also established and maintained under an FDA cooperative agreement, the FPTF brings together food and feed regulatory agencies in one room to discuss hot topics, regulatory roles and responsibilities, and foster relationship building,” Treadwell explains. “Chaired by the WSDA Feed/RRP, the task force recently voted to begin a rotating agency chair structure, which would allow different agencies to facilitate the quarterly meetings and create agendas. Several agencies from various levels of government have expressed their willingness to host future meetings of the FPTF.”

“Since forming the task force, we have gotten to know each other and now have a good understanding of what each agency does, their capabilities and their limitations,” says Phil Wyman, a health and environmental investigator with Public Health—Seattle & King County. “Rather than getting into turf wars or passing the buck, we all pull together to provide the best service possible for the public and the industries that we serve.”

King is Washington’s most populous county, home to about 2.1 million people.

Through the FPTF and the RRT, Washington’s regulatory agencies are better prepared to quickly respond to food and feed emergencies and related public health events, Wyman says. “This has been done by getting to know each other, providing training, and by becoming familiar with and using the Incident Command System,” he explains. “Improved communication has been key. Since forming the RRT, our state has responded to several food emergencies. Our responses have been timely and thorough.”

According to Wyman, the creation of the RRT was one of the inspirations that lead King County to develop its own Foodborne Illness Investigation Team (FIIT). “Like the RRT, implementing the FIIT has resulted in more thorough and timely outbreak investigations,” Wyman says. “Further, the FIIT has been better able to identify and institute targeted interventions, stopping outbreaks right in their tracks.”

Joe Graham, the food safety program supervisor for the WSDOH, is quick to emphasize that strong partnerships developed over years of consistent effort and providing quality education and training distinguish food safety and protection programs in Washington from those in some other states.

“As a local control state, Washington requires coordination between 35 local health jurisdictions as well as several other state and federal partners that provide food safety oversight in our state,” Graham relates. “At the local level, we have environmental health specialists that also function as generalists in solid waste, on-site sewage, and zoonotic concerns which can help ensure seeing the big picture when also working with food safety concerns.”