ADVANCEMENT OF THE PRACTICE
DIRECT FROM CDC ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Retail Collaborative Provides Tools and Resources to Drive Food Safety
• Increase the number of restaurants and other retail food establishments with well- developed food safety management sys- tems that use active managerial control. • Develop a strategy to enhance communica- tion and better tell our collective story. This column highlights some of the resources from the Collaborative for food safety programs. All Collaborative resources are avail- able at www.retailfoodsafetycollaborative.org. Using the Food Code Adoption Toolkit to Support Adoption Eorts With release of the FDA 2022 Food Code ear- lier this year, adoption is fresh on the minds of regulators. The Collaborative’s Food Code Adoption Toolkit helps food safety programs learn more about how the Food Code is used across the country. These programs can access resources to educate decision makers about the importance of these science-based stan- dards. The Toolkit includes a map of current Food Code adoption across the U.S., along with statements supporting adoption from national organizations, major players in the food indus- try, and food safety programs. It also includes links to articles on the impact of the Food Code , including a study (Kambhampati et al., Maggie Byrne Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Terryn Laird National Environmental Health Association Brooke Benschoter, MS, APR Association of Food and Drug Officials Jonathan Wolfe, MBA Association of State and Territorial Health Officials David McSwane, HSD, REHS, CP-FS Conference for Food Protection Anupama Varma Chelsea Gridley-Smith, PhD Nicholas Adams National Association of County and City Health Officials Steven Nattrass, MPH, REHS Ashlee Strong Food and Drug Administration
Editor’s Note: The National Environmental Health Association strives to provide up-to-date and relevant information on environmental health and to build partnerships in the profession. In pursuit of these goals, we feature this column on environmental health services from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in every issue of the Journal . In these columns, authors from CDC’s Water, Food, and Environmental Health Services Branch, as well as guest authors, will share tools, resources, and guidance for environmental health practitioners. The conclusions in these columns are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the ocial position of CDC. The authors represent organizations participating in the Communications Workgroup within the Retail Food Safety Regulatory Association Collaborative.
A ddressing Restaurant Food Safety Is Key to Reducing Foodborne Illness More than one half of all foodborne illness outbreaks in the U.S. are associated with res- taurants (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2019). Reducing food- borne illness is one of the nation’s Healthy People 2030 goals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, n.d.). To reduce food- borne illness and outbreaks at the retail level, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) brought together key partners to expand the capacity of food safety programs. Mobilizing Leading Organizations Around Food Safety Goals The Retail Food Safety Regulatory Asso- ciation Collaborative (Collaborative) brings together representatives from seven member organizations with a role in improving retail food safety in the U.S.: •Association of Food and Drug Ocials (AFDO) • Association of State and Territorial Health Ocials (ASTHO)
• Conference for Food Protection (CFP) • National Association of County and City Health Ocials (NACCHO) •National Environmental Health Associa- tion (NEHA) • Centers for Disease Control and Preven- tion (CDC) • Food and Drug Administration (FDA) These organizations leverage their com- bined strengths and resources as the Collab- orative to create and share tools and resources that food safety programs can use to improve food safety in their jurisdictions. In addition, the Collaborative’s six objectives are poised to influence or benefit regulatory food safety programs and the food safety culture at res- taurants and other retail food establishments. The Collaborative’s objectives are as follows: • Develop a strategy to support national FDA Food Code adoption. • Increase use of risk-based inspections and intervention strategies. • Increase use of the FDA Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards. • Improve foodborne outbreak investigation methods.
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Volume 86 • Number 2
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