ABOUT THE WORKGROUPS
Standards Revision Process Workgroup
Purpose: This workgroup will be responsible for reviewing the previous Standards revision process and making recommendations for the next revision process which will start sometime in 2018.
Who: Membership should consist of MFRPA Board members, state representatives, and FDA SIS and AS staff. Ideal membership should be approximately 10 members or more as identified.
What: Members on this workgroup will make recommendations regarding improvements to the existing process and help to create a visual diagram of the revision process as well as written documentation that can be used by the Alliance, States and FDA for future revisions. This would also include reviewing the AFRPS revision process.
When: Work will begin following recruitment at the 2017 MFRPA meeting in Florida. Ongoing work may include monthly conference / web meetings with an in-person working meeting prior to or following the AFDO meeting in Texas in June. The in-person meeting would consist of a one-day facilitated working meeting to visually document the revision process and start drafting written documents (e.g., template documents for revision workgroups, post revision surveys, etc.) that describe the process and role and responsibilities of the Alliance, States and the FDA.
Where: Conference Calls and at least one in-person meeting.
Why: The previous revision process was generally a success but there was some ambiguity surrounding the revision process and a potential lack of transparency for some involved.
Standards Crosswalk Analysis Workgroup
Purpose: This workgroup will analyze an existing crosswalk analysis of the Retail, Animal and Manufactured Food Program standards with the goal of identifying potential areas of alignment or harmonization – specifically from the MFRPS perspective – for the next round of MFRPS revisions.
Who: Membership should consist of MFRPA Board members, state representatives, and FDA SIS and AS staff. Ideal membership should be approximately 10 members or more as identified.
What: Members on this workgroup will review an existing crosswalk analysis and identify potential areas of harmonization for the next round of MFRPS revisions. This process may identify areas from the other standards that contain elements that should be added to the MFRPS (Standard 11 from the AFRPS, ISO 17020, etc.) or suggest elements that should be deleted or modified (the format of some of the appendices, for example). This will result in a final recommendations document that will be available to the standards revisions workgroup beginning sometime in 2018. These recommendations should highlight recordkeeping differences and requirements between the standards.
When: Work will begin following recruitment at the 2017 MFRPA meeting in Florida. Ongoing work may include monthly conference / web meetings with an in-person working meeting if needed. A final recommendation document should be completed in January 2018 prior to the next MFRPA meeting.
Where: Conference Calls and at least one in-person meeting – if necessary.
Why: This is an opportunity to take the best ideas from each set of standards in preparation for the next round of MFRPS revisions.