Food Safety Program

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Foodborne illness in the United States is estimated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to cause 76 million cases of illnesses, over 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths annually. Hospitalizations due to foodborne illnesses are estimated to cost over $3 billion and lost productivity is estimated to cost between $20 billion and $40 billion each year. NACCHO strives to support and work with local health departments to improve food safety and prevent foodborne illness.

	Food Safety Information for Hurricanes, Power Outages, & Floods

	Outbreak of Salmonella Serotype Saintpaul Infections Associated with Multiple Raw Produce Items

Programs Include

NEW

Enhancing Roles of State-Local Government in an Integrated Food Safety System

The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) are collaborating with the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO), and the George Washington University (GWU) to strengthen state and local roles in food safety.

This project, funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, aims to examine ways to define and advance an agenda for modernizing and strengthening the roles of state and local agencies in the nation’s food safety system. To achieve this aim, we are organizing four workshops to discuss state and local public health roles related to surveillance, inspection, regulation, and outbreak response.

The documents related to this collaborative project are located on the Food Safety Resource Consortium’s web site, www.thefsrc.org. The NACCHO contact for this project is schandar@naccho.org.

»	Foodborne Illness Systems Demonstration Site Project 2005–2006
	This project was undertaken developed to improve the capacity of local health departments to address public complaints of foodborne illness and laboratory reports of foodborne enteric disease, as well as to investigate outbreaks of foodborne illness. It was conducted with guidance and funding from the NCID's Food Safety Office of the Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More »

»	PARAGON: Online Inspection System
	One of the largest gaps in local health departments' food program capacity is the lack of electronic, streamlined, cost-effective management of food inspections, inspection reports, and results. NACCHO is collaborating with Paragon to address this need at the local level. More »