The Food Protection Professionals National Curriculum Standard (NCS) is a key element of the Integrated Food Safety System (IFSS), a seamless partnership and collaboration among human and animal food regulatory jurisdictions: Federal, State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial.

The NCS represents a standard for human and animal food professionals, across their entire careers. The NCS depicts the knowledge, skills, and abilities needed by these professionals in order to successfully perform their jobs, thereby assuring a competent workforce doing comparable work across all jurisdictions.