The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA

Abstract #71164

Ruthanne Marcus, MPH¹, Tracy Weeks, MS², Linda Green, RS², Ann Andrews, RD², and Patricia Mshar, MPH². (1) School of Public Health, Yale University, One Church Street, 7th Floor, New Haven, CT 06510, (203) 764-4363, Ruthanne.Marcus@yale.edu, (2) Food Protection Program, Connecticut Department of Public Health, 410 Capitol Ave, Hartford, CT 06134

In 1999, the Yale School of Public Health received funds from the Association of Schools of Public Health to enhance the capabilities of the Connecticut (CT) Department of Public Health, Food Protection Program (FPP) to conduct environmental investigations of foodborne disease outbreaks. Objectives of this 3-year program were to: 1) develop a central computerized complaint system to enable local health departments to standardize the reporting and documentation of foodborne illness complaints; 2) train local health inspectors to conduct effective environmental investigations during foodborne outbreaks, and 3) train local health inspectors to conduct focused food service establishment inspections to identify environmental risk factors for foodborne illness. At the conclusion of the project, a computerized complaint database was developed and data are being entered, FPP had assisted local health departments in 7 outbreak investigations, trained over 100 local food inspectors with FDA’s Foodborne Illness Outbreak Investigations Course, and trained 75 local inspectors to conduct environmental investigations using the new form that focuses on CDC-identified environmental risk factors for foodborne illness. As of December 31, 2002, FPP received over 1000 focused food inspection forms; data entry and analysis is ongoing (could omit this sentence). In CT, we have significantly improved our ability to conduct environmental investigations of foodborne outbreaks by training local health department sanitarians and improving and standardizing our data collection systems. These new capabilities will improve our response to foodborne outbreaks and our understanding of the environmental antecedents to foodborne illness. Moreover, this program is an essential component of the bioterrorism response and preparedness plan in CT.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s Food Protection Program for conducting environmental investigations of foodborne disease outbreaks.
• 2) Utilize this information to assess their own State’s program for environmental investigation of foodborne disease outbreaks.
• 3) Articulate the necessity to utilize a centralized system for complaints of foodborne illness in an era of bioterrorism.

Keywords: Food Safety, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.