On October 7, the FDA announced that the Agency entered into domestic mutual reliance agreements with California, Florida, Utah, and Wisconsin. The mutual reliance agreements facilitate a coordinated effort between the FDA and the individual states with goals to reduce human foodborne illness outbreaks, reduce duplication of regulatory oversight, and increase public health protection by focusing on higher risk areas.

Through the mutual reliance agreements FDA and the states will coordinate and leverage one another’s work, data, and actions to achieve a safer food supply. The FDA stated that the mutual reliance agreements will enhance the existing relationships with states and government counterparts and move the country toward an Integrated Food Safety System.

The FDA will collaborate with partner states on data sharing, risk prioritization, inspections, outbreak investigations, development and monitoring of key metrics and laboratory capacity, among other areas. The partners will be able to jointly identify needs to better protect the public and leverage work from other regulatory programs. The agreements will also help build quality management systems and infrastructures to support national regulatory standards.

As per Michael Rogers, Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Human and Animal Food Operations in FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs, “A strong, integrated system is essential to a safe food supply. Mutual reliance between the FDA and individual states is one example of the many actions the agency is taking to address our nation’s increasingly complex food production and distribution systems. We expect that as more states sign mutual reliance agreements, it will help reduce redundancy and duplication of effort, optimize the impact of our collective oversight, and allow us to build on the long-standing relationships that we have with our state regulatory partners.”