Washington, D.C. — The North American Meat Institute Foundation on Wednesday commended USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture for announcing 36 grant awards totaling almost $19 million under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative.
The grants include funding for research projects focused on food safety and quality as well as mitigating antibiotic resistance.
“USDA has long been a primary funding source for food science research and its commitment to food safety and quality will help ensure the safety and wholesomeness of the US food supply, said NAMIF President Betsy Booren, Ph.D. “The Foundation is supportive of the AFRI program and will continue to provide stakeholder comments on research priorities when our interests align. We also hope these types of research funding programs continue to be supported and potentially even enhanced in USDA’s budget.”
The NAMI Foundation has funded more than $8 million on food safety focused research projects since 1999. This includes a multi-year initiative with the goal of reducing Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 in meat and poultry products. Current research projects can be found here.
