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  5. Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS)
  6. Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) for Human and Animal Foods
  1. Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS)

Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) for Human and Animal Foods

Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are multi-agency, multi-disciplinary teams that operate using Incident Command System (ICS)/National Incident Management System (NIMS) principles and a Unified Command structure to respond to human and animal food emergencies.

The desired outcome of RRT development is to minimize the time between agency notification of a human or animal food contamination event and implementation of effective control measures. To accomplish this, RRTs develop and maintain processes to:

  • Prepare for and effectively respond to foodborne illness outbreaks and other food emergencies.
  • Enhance intra-agency and interagency collaboration and communication.
  • Jointly train and exercise staff to be ready to respond to events when they occur.
  • Identify potential preventive practices to reduce foodborne illness and injury.
  • Establish national best practices and tools that can be shared with other states to improve their response to food emergencies.

FDA provides multi-year cooperative agreements to states to form and maintain RRTs. These cooperative agreements require RRTs to engage partners across disciplines and jurisdictions to build core capabilities and explore innovative approaches to response.

Factsheet (Version November 2023) 

States with RRTs

There are 24 FDA funded Rapid Response Team cooperative agreement states: AR, AZ, CA, CT, GA, IA, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WI, WV.

NC and NY participate in a voluntary, non-funded capacity.

There is over $5.6M in funding under this cooperative agreement program. 

United States Map displaying 23 FDA funded Rapid Response Team cooperative agreement states: AR, AZ, CA, CT, GA, IA, IN, KS, KY, MA, MD, MI, MN, MO, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, WA, WV.

The RRT Best Practices Manual

The RRT Best Practices Manual features tools that can be used by programs to improve key areas of response such as communication, traceback and traceforward, laboratory analysis, and joint investigations and inspections.  It also establishes metrics for rapid response capabilities that allow RRTs to assess their status, identify improvement plans, and quantify accomplishments and impact.  

Download the RRT Best Practices Manual (2017 Edition)

A companion document to the RRT Best Practices Manual is the RRT Capacity Building and Mentorship Framework. This document provides a three-phase framework for incremental RRT capacity building and can be applied by any State/Division-District wishing to establish a RRT with functional rapid response capabilities aligned with the RRT Best Practices Manual and the NIMS preparedness cycle.

Download the RRT Capacity Building and Mentorship Framework

Additional Information 



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