FDA Food Safety Challenge Finalists To Present Concepts; Winners Selected

FDA is holding a public meeting, “Demo Day for the 2014 FDA Food Safety Challenge,” July 7 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The 2014 FDA Food Safety Challenge is a prize competition under the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010 which granted FDA (and other federal Agencies) broad authority to conduct prize competitions to spur innovation, solve tough problems, and advance its core mission. The purpose of the public meeting is for each of the five challenge finalists to present their concepts to the judges for selection of one or more winners.

The public meeting will be held at the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, 5100 Paint Branch Pkwy., Wiley Building Auditorium (Rm. 1A003-AR), College Park, MD 20740. Parking is extremely limited, so participants are encourage to use public transportation (Metro: College Park-U of MD station on the Green Line). Entrance for the public meeting participants (non-FDA employees) is through the main entrance of the Wiley Building where routine security check procedures will be performed.

The 2014 FDA Food Safety Challenge is a prize competition under the America Competes Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-358). In this, FDA asked for potential breakthrough ideas on how to find disease-causing organisms – especially Salmonella – in food. FDA encouraged food safety experts, such as scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and innovators, to participate in the challenge and to develop concepts specifically to address the detection of Salmonella in minimally processed fresh produce and the ability of a solution to address testing for other microbial pathogens and in other foods. The panel of food safety and pathogen detection experts from FDA, CDC, and USDA will judge the finalists' concepts and select a winner or winners.

If you are interested in attending the meeting, submit your online registration information (including name, title, firm name, address, telephone number, and email) by June 29, 2015 at: http://www.foodsafetychallenge.com/demoday/. There is no registration fee for the public meeting. Early registration is recommended because seating is limited. There will be no onsite registration. If you need special accommodations due to disability, please contact Chad Nelson 301-796-4643 or chad.nelson@fda.hhs.gov at least seven days in advance. For those who are unable to attend in person, the public meeting will also be Webcast. Information about how to register to view the live webcast of this meeting will be provided on the Challenge Web site at http://foodsafetychallenge.com/demoday/.