Assessing Food Safety Trends within Foodservice and Retail Food Facilities

Beginning in 1998, FDA initiated a study that established a national baseline on the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors. The study objectives included the identification of food safety practices and behaviors that are most in need of attention from industry and regulatory food safety professionals; analyze trends in the occurrence of foodborne illness risk factors to assess trends and progress over time, and establish a model for use by state and local regulatory agencies to conduct their own studies.

FDA's first 10-year study indicated that statistically significant gains were made in areas that were in need of improvement. Significant improvement, however, was still need for contributing factors to foodborne illness related to hand hygiene, cold holding and cooing of foods, and cleaning and sanitizing equipment and food contact surfaces.

In 2013, FDA launched its second 10-year study which will continue to assess and track progress made in control of key foodborne illness risk factors. The study, however, has been enhanced to gain a better understanding of the "why" behind the control or lack of control of foodborne illness risk factors. The new study will also assess the degree to which certain risk factors are out of control; determine potential correlations between the implementation of industry food safety management systems and the control of foodborne illness risk factors; obtain more information on the type and scope of the industry operation as well as the regulatory environment within which the establishment is located.

This presentation will provide an overview to the design of the new study and discuss how the results may be used by FDA to enhance the effectiveness of the nation's retail food protection system.