The FMI Foundation supports the following initiatives in our efforts to support research and education in the area of food safety.
Food Safety Auditing Scholarship and Education Travel Grant
Food buyers and sellers increasingly rely on accredited third-party certification to help ensure products they sell to consumers are safe. The future of accredited third-party certification is dependent on a core of well-trained auditors that have combination of auditing skills, food industry experience and a food science or related degree. In North America, there is a shortage of well-trained auditors. The critical issue for accredited third-party auditing in North America is to source the next generation of well-trained auditors.
In collaboration with the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Institute, we award scholarships to 15 university food and agricultural science students annually. Each recipient receives a $3,000 scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to the SQF Conference to network with more than 750 food safety professionals in attendance.
Grants
The FMI Foundation awards financial grants annually in the areas of food safety, family meals, and workforce development. Examples of the 2025 recipients are the Partnership for Food Safety Education; the Center for Food Integrity, with its key research in animal welfare and gene-editing; Common Threads with its nutrition courses and cooking education curriculum; Junior Achievement USA through our collaborative partnership the Inspiring Careers in Food program; International Food Protection Institute’s Applied Science, Law, and Policy Fellowship; and the Partnership for a Healthier America, with its amplification of nutrition in well-deserving communities.
Please note that the deadline for unsolicited grant applications for the following year is the first Friday in September.