Alaska Food Protection Task Force Meeting Minutes

Minutes

• October 25, 2022

• Roll call: Lorinda Lhotka, Kimberly Stryker, Ytamar Rodriguez, Emily Garrett, Ian Thompson, Michael Hudson, Dena Cologgi, Kathleen Easley, Jason Wiard, Carol Brady, Michael Tew, Katie Hubbard, Darcy Harris, Monique Moon, Brehan Corveau, Lea Zeitlin, Lizzy Buckingham, Josephine Dawson, Jeremy Ayers, Alyssa Rodriguez

• Opening remarks and introductions
• Food Safety and Sanitation program update
  • Staffing changes in FSS
    • Ketchikan: McKenna (this was our longest-running vacancy!)
    • Fairbanks: Shannon and Eric
    • Anchorage: Alexander is new seafood tech
    • Current vacancies: Anchorage and Soldotna EHOs
  • Kimberly Stryker: Healthy People 2030 national initiatives
    • Norovirus reduction at food service
    • Salmonella and poultry to reduce incidences of salmonellosis
    • Reduction of E. coli in produce, primary pathogen (though not only pathogen of concern)
  • Food code regulatory project
    • Completing a comparison of current Alaska code and the current FDA Model Food Code
    • Would like AFPTF partners to provide input regarding priorities to keep in mind when considering updates to the Alaska code
    • Ideas: Somebody from FDA or Washington State to provide mini-presentations on any changes Alaska may be interested in making to the food code and what this may look like in practice
• FDA Dashboard presentation: "FDA Dashboards and Biennial Registration Requirement"
  • Ian Thompson (FDA) and Michael Hudson (FDA)
  • datadashboard.fda.gov
  • FDA's data dashboards allow analysis of public FDA data
  • Two groups of dashboards: Compliance dashboards and FSMA Data Search dashboards
  • Bioterrorism registration
• Member updates
  • FDA
    • Michael Hudson is the new state liaison for Alaska
  • Section of Epidemiology
    • Recruiting for one staff
    • Have not returned to regular investigations of foodborne and waterborne illnesses, also working with the Muni
  • Municipality of Anchorage
    • Hiring a standardization officer and an environmental health educator
    • Hired a new sanitarian from their customer service program
    • Working on training and standardization of staff
  • Office of the State Veterinarian
    • Lizzy is the new produce and dairy inspector
    • Office completed their single produce farm inspection this summer
    • Looking forward to more grower training and conferences this winter
    • Agricultural Water Rule, new format moving toward risk-assessment beyond testing
    • Raw milk sales will be legal in the state of Alaska, farms and retail markets will have to register with the Office of the State Veterinarian, little oversight
    • Producers may sell directly to consumers and also to markets that register
  • Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
    • Environmental health vacancies and other vacancies throughout the tribal health system in Alaska
    • Looking forward to future trainings for staff
  • Yum!
    • Standards are being updated and awaiting the update to the FDA Model Food Code to be released
    • Also awaiting FDA traceability rules
  • MEP
    • Workshop in Soldotna for manufacturers
    • Manufacturers track
    • Stakeholders, policymakers track
    • Hiring one new staff and crafting another new position
• AFPTF Workshop
  • Planning for a virtual workshop in April 2023
  • Looking for volunteers to participate in planning
• Action Items/To-Do List
  • Next quarterly meeting: Tuesday, January 17 at 1000-1130 Alaska time

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