When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) introduced the “New Era of Smarter Food Safety” blueprint in 2020, it brought with it a call to action to focus on modernizing traditional retail food safety approaches. Coincidentally, one of the plan’s four core elements punctuated work that was already happening among several organizations that have the regulation of retail food safety in state, local, territorial, and tribal food safety programs as a pillar of their missions. This retail food safety focus includes foodservice, convenience stores, and retail food stores.
In 2018, the leadership of four retail regulatory food safety organizations was discussing the need to capitalize on what each of the teams did best while working to extend resources further by avoiding duplication and leveraging expertise each brought to the table. Key to the discussion was FDA, which also has a vested interest in bending the curve of foodborne illness at the retail level.