Food Safety Month Week 4: Week 4: Inside the health department's response to foodborne outbreaks: What should you expect

Week 4: Inside the health department's response to foodborne outbreaks: What should you expect?

By: CDR Adam Kramer, ScD, MPH, RS and CDR Beth Wittry, MPH, REHS, CP-FS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Commanders Adam Kramer and Beth Wittry are Environmental Health Officers in CDC's Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch.

Even in the most well-run restaurants, a foodborne outbreak may occur. An outbreak is when multiple people get sick from eating the same food. Many foodborne outbreaks in restaurants are identified from customer complaints of illness to the health department.

Restaurant managers and staff may be used to seeing health department inspectors in the restaurant. However, outbreak investigations are different from routine inspections.

Routine inspections focus on ensuring restaurants meet food safety regulations. They are focused on food safety practices and conditions at the time of the inspection.

Investigations focus on identifying the specific food and circumstances that led to the outbreak. This usually means they are focused on food safety practices and conditions that occurred in the past-at the time the food that caused the outbreak was prepared. Their goal is to identify what led to the breakdown in food safety that caused the outbreak. Read More