September Is National Food Safety Education Month

It’s National Food Safety Education month so we’d like to remind you about resources from the Environmental Health Services Branch and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) related to foodborne illness and food safety.

Resources from the Environmental Health Services Branch

e-Learning on Environmental Assessment of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks - free, new interactive course on how to use a systems approach in foodborne illness outbreak environmental assessments

EHS-Net – links environmental health specialists with epidemiologists and laboratorians to identify and prevent environmental factors contributing to foodborne illness and disease outbreaks:

Food Protection – section from Emergency and Terrorism Preparedness for Environmental Health Practitioners provides specific information on how practitioners can effectively prevent and respond to foodborne outbreaks and emphasizes food-security related issues

Food Safety Publications – EHS food-safety publications listed by citation

Food Safety Topic Page – EHS topic page with links to information on food safety

Hear from EHS’ Martin Kalis and Rob Blake and others about how the food industry can best prepare for the next natural disaster before it strikes in Lessons Learned: Food Safety Preparedness before the Next Natural Disaster.

National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) – surveillance system to capture environmental assessment data from foodborne illness outbreaks

Environmental Health Findings to Improve Food Safety in Restaurants - four 2013 publications on restaurant food handling practices that have been linked with foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings [ground beef handling, handling of leafy greens, chicken cross-contamination, and sick food workers]

CDC Resources

CDC’s Winnable Battle on Food Safety – snapshot of the context and background for CDC’s food safety priority area, as well as descriptions of some of the systems, policy, and programmatic interventions pursued by CDC and our public health partners at the federal, state and local levels

Find Out About Food Trucks in Your Area – read the blog about mobile food trucks

Food Safety – CDC Food Safety homepage

Vital Signs: Preventing Norovirus Outbreaks – food service has a key role
Vital Signs: Recipe for Food Safety – protecting people from deadly Listeria food poisoning
Vital Signs: Making Food Safer to Eat – reducing contamination from the farm to the table

Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) – surveillance for foodborne diseases and related epidemiologic studies to help public health officials better understand the epidemiology of foodborne diseases in the United States

Foodborne Outbreak Online Database (FOOD) – web-based platform for searching CDC's Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System database by year, state, location, and pathogen

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Other Resources

Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR)

Foodborne Illness Response Guidelines for Owners, Operators and Managers of Food Establishments – new guidelines developed as voluntary guidance for owners, operators, and managers of retail food establishments to help outline, clarify, and explain industry’s recommended role in a foodborne illness outbreak investigation
Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response [PDF - 2.5 MB] – guidelines to aid government agencies responsible for preventing and managing foodborne disease

Food and Drug Administration

FDA Food Code – FDA model that assists food control jurisdictions at all levels of government by providing them with a scientifically sound technical and legal basis for regulating the retail and food service segment of the industry
Foodborne Illness and Contaminants – FDA guidelines for protection against foodborne illness

Foodsafety.gov (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services) – information about food safety

United States Department of Agriculture

Food Safety and Inspection Service – information about food safety and food inspections
Nutrient Data Laboratory – tool to search for information about food