PANORA, Iowa — U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the Department is investing $11.1 million under the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program to help Crystal Freeze Dry LLC expand capacity to manufacture freeze-dried egg products and create job opportunities for people living in rural Iowa. The funding is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to strengthen critical food supply chain infrastructure to create more thriving communities for the American people.

"The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in ways to create more, new and better market opportunities for farmers and increase access to healthy food options for people across the nation," Vilsack said. “Through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA has become a stronger partner to small and midsize farmers everywhere by backing private investments to expand processing capacity that will strengthen the food supply chain for the American people. The investment we’re announcing today is the first of many that will help to eliminate supply chain bottle necks and create more resilient, diverse and secure food supply infrastructure right here at home.”

Crystal Freeze Dry LLC, a family-owned dried-egg product manufacturer, will use the funding to expand its business and create jobs for seven people in Guthrie County. Funds also will be used to purchase equipment, refinance debt and support working capital.

The company supplies American troops and sailors with homegrown eggs that require no refrigeration and are not fragile. For example, it recently launched “Egg in a Cup™”, which can be microwaved to make scrambled eggs.

It is making plans to enter markets in Puerto Rico due to local power grid issues. Supplying these products to frontline troops, ships at sea, and areas with unstable electrical grids creates a more resilient, diverse, and secure food supply chain.

The Biden-Harris Administration made these funds available through its historic legislative package, the American Rescue Plan Act. The program is part of the administration’s efforts to address food system challenges dating back decades and further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program supports essential processing and supply chain infrastructure to help eliminate bottlenecks in the food supply chain, deliver more opportunities and fairer prices for farmers and provide people with greater access to healthier foods.

USDA will announce additional recipients for the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program in the coming weeks and months.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and USAID Administrator Samantha Power released the U.S. government’s Global Food Security Research Strategy, underscoring the U.S. government’s commitment to ending hunger and malnutrition and building medium to long-term sustainable resilient food systems. The new research strategy emphasizes priority objectives and the use of data to help strengthen the impact of U.S. food security assistance and, with America’s leadership, generate sustainable solutions for addressing the root causes of hunger and malnutrition, which are both inextricably linked to entrenched, extreme poverty.

The new strategy builds on an exceptional record of achievement from past U.S. investments across agriculture and food systems research. For example, USDA and USAID, in collaboration with universities and partners around the world, successfully averted widespread failure of wheat harvests in the face of a new and fatal strain of wheat stem rust that threatened global harvests over the last 15 years. Other accomplishments also include partnerships that have now brought drought-tolerant maize (corn) to approximately 17 million acres across the eastern and southern Africa regions, offering nearly seven million farm families (35+ million people) greater food security as we combat climate change. U.S. farmers, ranchers, and consumers also benefit from these investments, enabling them to improve production, stay ahead of new pests, and be ready for changing climatic conditions. U.S. research initiatives have also advanced vaccines for livestock, limited invasive pests and diseases of crops, and other solutions to address global food-security challenges.

The research strategy will underpin the United States Government Global Food Security Strategy (2022-2026), which makes clear that sustainable agricultural productivity growth is most effective in achieving the concurrent goals of reducing extreme poverty and hunger, while helping to lift the real incomes of the poor, and making diets nutritious and affordable for all.

“Investment in, and support for, agricultural research and development is imperative so that the world’s farmers have access to innovations that enhance productivity and efficiency, build resilience and prosperity, while adapting to challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic, water insecurity, the climate crisis, and conflict,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power said, Climate change shows no signs of slowing. Neither does hunger. This Strategy confronts these dual, interlinked threats with one of our most powerful weapons: research and innovation.”

USDA and USAID also jointly led the whole-of-government effort to develop the Global Food Security Research Strategy. The extensive consultations with development partners, scientific societies, universities, federal research agencies, and researchers on the ground around the world helped to identify where science and research data can best advance the goals of a broader food-security strategy. The new research strategy focuses on three areas where science and innovation are essential to progress:

• Climate-smart agricultural innovations
• Improved nutrition through high-quality, affordable diets, and
• Genetic improvement of resilient crops and livestock

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidance that describes the actions, behaviors and statements by a foreign food establishment or foreign government that the FDA considers to be a refusal of an FDA inspection.

Food for importation into the United States comes from all over the world. One way that the FDA protects the U.S. food supply is by conducting inspections of foreign food facilities to identify potential food safety concerns. 

The FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) gives the FDA authority to refuse entry of food offered for importation into the United States if the foreign food establishment or foreign government has refused to permit the FDA to inspect the foreign establishment that produced the food. The guidance issued today provides examples of situations that FDA may consider as constituting refusal.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — On Nov. 15, 2022, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods (NACMCF) will hold a virtual public meeting of the full Committee. The Committee will discuss adding a work charge being advanced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Cronobacter spp. in powdered infant formula. The Committee will also discuss updates under the Cyclospora cayetanensis subcommittee and vote on adopting the following report: “Enhancing Salmonella Control in Poultry Products.”

The charge being advanced by FDA to the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Foods is intended to help us gain scientific insight about some of the questions we have regarding Cronobacter infections including recommendations for how public health authorities can better protect public health; and recommendations for food safety management practices that the food industry can implement to enhance the safety of powdered infant formula.

NACMCF is an advisory committee, established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), that provides impartial, scientific advice, and/or peer reviews to Federal food safety agencies for use in the development of an integrated national food safety systems approach that assures the safety of domestic, imported, and exported foods.

Comments should be submitted electronically to docket number FSIS-2022-0031 on or before November 15, 2022.

Registration: The meeting will be held virtually using Zoom. Attendees must pre-register to receive a join link, dial-in number, access code, and unique Attendee ID for the event. Attendees who express interest in delivering comments during the meeting must register by Nov. 8, 2022. USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) will do its best to accommodate all registered persons who request to provide oral comments. Attendees that do not plan to speak at the public meeting may register at any time up to the day of the meeting.