The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced awards totaling more than $15.1 million, including more than $3.4 million for antimicrobial resistance strategies, to ensure a safe and nutritious food supply and while maintaining American agricultural competitiveness. NIFA made the awards through the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI), which is authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and administered through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
NIFA made the awards through the AFRI Food Safety program to protect consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that may occur in the food chain, from production to consumption. This year, AFRI’s Food Safety program is comprised of five sub-programs. The following projects have been selected for awards in each sub-program:
Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies
- University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., $1,000,000
- North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., $147,958
- Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $1,000,000
Effective Mitigation Strategies for Antimicrobial Resistance
- Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa., $128,599
- Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, $999,346
- Mississippi State University, Mississippi State, Miss., $149,936
- Montana State University, Bozeman, Mont., $149,514
- State University of New York, Buffalo, N.Y., $999,921
- Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, $1,000,000
Improving Food Safety
- University of California, Riverside, Calif., $468,026
- University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn., $142,463
- Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Conn., $474,959
- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $474,993
- University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, $474,864
- Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., $475,000
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $473,628
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $473,380
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., $474,948
- North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C., $115,702
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., $308,570
- University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc., $474,973
Improving Food Quality
- University of California, Davis, Calif., $468,839
- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $245,233
- Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $469,958
- Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kan., $469,366
- University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., $149,999
- University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $149,880
- University of Maryland, College Park, Md., $469,470
- University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $469,775
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., $427,025
- Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., $30,000
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn., $470,000
- Utah State University, Logan, Utah, $297,452
- University of Vermont, Burlington, Vt., $143,154
- Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $456,847
More information about all of these projects can be found in NIFA’s reporting database.
