FIGURE 2
FIGURE 1
Screenshot of the From Inspector to Investigator Video
The Five Types of Root Causes: People, Equipment, Economics, Processes, and Food
Note. The icon graphics represent the root causes. The chef icon in purple represents people, the sink icon in blue represents equipment, the money icon in green represents economics, the numbers icon in yellow represents processes, and the tomato icon in red represents food.
Screenshot of a Scene From an Environmental Assessment Training Series (EATS) Module on Measuring Temperature in a Restaurant Refrigerator FIGURE 3
Root Causes Are Why an Outbreak Happens
Understanding the root causes of an outbreak is key to prevention, but it requires additional questioning and critical thinking to get to the reasons why the outbreak happened. In the previous Salmonella example, interviewing and observing the worker could reveal improper training or lack of needed equipment or sup- plies to thoroughly wash their hands. This circumstance is the root cause and knowing this information can help investigators make recommendations to prevent future outbreaks. CDC has created three tools to help inves- tigators determine root causes of a foodborne outbreak (Figure 2). Root causes are catego- rized as people, equipment, economics, pro- cesses, and food. These tools can be used in the field or after a site visit to help food safety investigators determine the applicable root causes for their situation. The tools include: • A one-page chart about the five types of root causes • A short field guide on root causes and their subcategories • An expanded reference manual for those jurisdictions reporting data to the National Environmental Assessment Reporting Sys- tem (NEARS)
and did not wash their hands properly before prepping the salad. The food worker inadvertently contaminated the salad with Salmonella from the raw chicken. These circumstances are how the outbreak hap-
pened, which is important data to help understand the series of events. The next question, however, becomes why did the food worker not wash their hands properly before preparing the salad.
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January/February 2024 • Journal of Environmental Health
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