ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
system that supports expanded access to standardization and tracks progress over time toward the national targets identified in the census. What Was Learned, What Remains The RFRWS Census makes three major con- tributions to the food safety evidence base, in that it: 1. Establishes the first national baseline of standardization status across all SLTT jurisdictions, replacing assumptions with verifiable population-level data. 2. Translates that baseline into a concrete expansion target: a defined count of juris- dictions, inspectors, and required standard- izations disaggregated by level and category. 3. Demonstrates that barriers to reaching that target are structural and surmountable, not attitudinal. The agencies are interested, the program infrastructure exists, and the miss- ing ingredient is a coordinated deployment strategy at the scale the data now justify. What remains is a 6-part implementa- tion pathway: 1) activating interested non- participating jurisdictions via RFFM Grant Program infrastructure, 2) building regional standardization networks, 3) reinforcing full Standard 2 implementation, 4) formalizing alternative delivery models, 5) establishing
a broker program, and 6) creating a longitu- dinal tracking system. Every FDA-guided agency is simultane- ously a beneficiary of standardization and a potential training resource for individuals outside it; deliberately activating that latent capacity across agency boundaries is the most direct route to national alignment. Future research should link standardization status to inspection performance indicators and foodborne illness outcomes, assess equity in access across jurisdictions by size and geog- raphy, and establish benchmarks for measur- ing progress. The data are strong, the institu- tional will is in place, and coordinated action is now required. Funding Statement, Disclaimer, and Con- flicts of Interest: This work was supported by NEHA through its cooperative agree- ment with FDA under the RFFM Grant Program (FDA Cooperative Agreement No. 3U19FD008288). The findings and conclu- sions are those of the authors and do not nec- essarily represent the views of CDC, FDA, or NEHA. NEHA is a cooperator in implement- ing the FDA’s RFFM Grant Program, which supports VNRFRPS engagement among SLTT jurisdictions. Findings are reported irrespec- tive of their direction.
AI Disclaimer: OpenAI ChatGPT (GPT-5.3) and Anthropic Claude (Claude 3.7 Sonnet) was accessed intermittently between Janu- ary 2026 and April 2026 for limited edito- rial assistance. These tools were used for limited editorial support, including gram- mar review, sentence refinement, concision improvement, and formatting suggestions during drafting and revising the manu- script. AI assistance was used only for word- ing, organizational clarity, and readability in selected narrative sections. The authors developed, verified, and approved all study design, data collection, statistical analysis, interpretation of findings, substantive sci- entific content, tables, and conclusions. The authors fully reviewed and edited the final article before submission. Acknowledgments: The authors thank the FDA Retail Food Safety staff, CDC National Out- break Reporting System (NORS) team, NEHA RFFM team, and participating SLTT agencies for their contributions and partnership. Corresponding Author: Gagandeep Gill, MPH, DrPH, National Environmental Health Asso- ciation, 1400 South Colorado Boulevard, Suite 325, Denver, CO 80222-3658. Email: ggill@neha.org
References
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Food and Drug Administration. (n.d.). FDA procedures for standard- ization of retail food safety inspection officers: Updated to the 2022 FDA Food Code. https://www.fda.gov/media/187086/download Food and Drug Administration. (2024). Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards: Standard 2—Trained regula- tory staff . https://www.fda.gov/media/86717/download Food and Drug Administration. (2025). Standardization of retail food safety inspection personnel . https://www.fda.gov/food/retail- food-protection/standardization-retail-food-safety-inspection- personnel Food and Drug Administration. (2026a). Listing of jurisdictions enrolled in the Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards . https://www.fda.gov/food/voluntary-national-retail- food-regulatory-program-standards/listing-jurisdictions-enrolled- voluntary-national-retail-food-regulatory-program-standards Food and Drug Administration. (2026b). Recalls, market withdrawals, & safety alerts . https://www.fda.gov/safety/recalls-market-with drawals-safety-alerts Food and Drug Administration. (2026c). Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards . https://www.fda.gov/food/
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Volume 89 • Number 4
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