Who We Are

The Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) is a multidisciplinary research and education program. JIFSAN was formed in 1996 as a partnership between the University of Maryland and the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Centers for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) and Veterinary Medicine (CVM). Food safety risk analysis is one of the emphases of JIFSAN.

An effective food safety system should be science-based, with a strong emphasis on risk analysis and prevention. Even so, few professionals who are not involved on a daily basis know or understand risk analysis. The worldwide commitment to the use of risk analysis in food safety creates a great need to educate food safety and other public health professionals about this burgeoning field.

The JIFSAN Food Safety Risk Analysis Professional Development Training Program arose from the need for risk analysis expertise among the regulatory and scientific communities of the federal food safety agencies. As the language, tools, and techniques of risk analysis become more widely adopted, professionals across a broad spectrum of fields seek to develop this proficiency. This program intends to meet the needs of federal agencies, ministries, state and provincial governments, academics, industry, trade and consumer groups, and economic, legislative and legal professionals.