USDA’s National Institute of Food And Agriculture (NIFA) awarded 36 grants to enhance food safety totaling $19 million, including $6.7 million for antimicrobial resistance strategies.

“Increasing food safety continues to be a major focus for USDA, as it directly impacts the health and well-being of all Americans," said Sonny Ramaswamy, NIFA director. "Funding provided to universities supports discoveries of new ways that we can prevent foodborne illnesses and increase the safety of our food production industry."

The awards were made to protect consumers from microbial and chemical contaminants that might occur in the food chain. The following projects were selected as grant recipients:

Enhancing Food Safety through Improved Processing Technologies

University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Ark. $149,000

Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn., $500,000

University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $900,000

University of California, Davis, Calif., $751,000

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., $700,000

Effective Mitigation Strategies for Antimicrobial Resistance

Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo., $749,838

University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., $2,193,556

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., $2,250,000

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C., $15,000

Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, $16,500

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Va., $750,000

Washington State University, Pullman, Wash., $749,993

Identifying and Targeting Food Safety Needs

Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Ill., $50,000

Improving Food Safety

University of Connecticut, Mansfield, Conn., $49,744

University of South Florida, Tampa, Fl., $499,972

Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., $499,968

University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, $499,516

University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $150,000

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $499,567

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., $500,000

University of Nevada-Reno, Reno, Nev., $150,000

Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., $979,761

North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D., $172,339

The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, $50,000

University of California, Davis, Calif., $499,812

Improving Food Quality

University of California, Davis, Calif., $498,356

University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla., $499,652

University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, $248,408

University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill., $861,714

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., $465,694

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, $420,685

University of Maine, Orono, Maine, $46,293

University of Maryland, Princess Anne, Md., $149,998

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Mass., $499,977

Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mich., $489,528

West Virginia University, Morgantown, W.V., $435,353

 A complete list of project descriptions can be found on the NIFA website here.