Activity Areas
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CDC’s six Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence (Colorado, Florida, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee) are making headway as resources for responders of foodborne illness and outbreaks by focusing efforts on six main activity areas:
- Strengthen surveillance and outbreak investigations.
- Analyze timeliness and effectiveness of responses.
- Train public health staff in proven investigative techniques.
- Educate future food safety workforce.
- Improve capacity of information systems.
- Evaluate and communicate best practices.
Learn what the Centers are doing in each of the activity areas to build capacity for foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak investigations.
Strengthen Surveillance and Outbreak Investigations
- The Food Safety Southeast App provides food safety professionals with free access to resources, trainings, and news. It is available on apple and android devices and is maintained by the Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence.
Epi InfoTM 7 Foodborne Outbreak and Surveillance Templates
Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence creates foodborne outbreak and surveillance templates that users can download for use in Epi InfoTM 7. (Florida)
Analyze Timeliness and Effectiveness of Responses
Evaluation of Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) clusters
Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence analyzes 12 years of Salmonella and E. coli PFGE clusters which helped solve outbreaks. (Minnesota)
Train Public Health Staff in Proven Investigative Techniques
- The Colorado Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence Environmental Assessment QuickTrain is designed for public health professionals as an introduction or refresher on conducting environmental assessments during an outbreak investigation.
- Colorado Director gives Outbreak Containment Presentation [PDF - 16 pages]
- Alicia Cronquist, Director of the Colorado Food Safety Center of Excellence, presents on Outbreak Containment and Emergency Response at USDA’s 90th Annual Outlook Forum. (Colorado)
- New Webinars and Videos
- Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence develops and posts training webinars including a water testing kit tutorial,an informational video on Vibrio vulnificus, and four EpiInfo Epi InfoTM 7 instructional videos. (Florida)
- Epi InfoTM 7 Trainings in Florida
- Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence trains 100 Florida Department of Health epidemiology and environmental health staff to use Epi InfoTM 7 during in-person single day trainings. (Florida)
- The first video of the Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence’s Foodborne Illness Introductory Training Series provides a brief historical context and is designed for novice outbreak investigators to learn about the health and financial burden of foodborne illness.
- The Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence has developed guidance materials to help other health departments set up student teams, investigate sub-clusters, and create a foodborne complaint system. Check out Minnesota's Key Points Series for a step-by-step look at the MN system.
- Oregon Public Health Epidemiologist’s User System (Orpheus) Training
- Oregon Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence pilots new training exercises with epidemiologists from Oregon’s local health departments. (Oregon)
- The Tennessee Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence has launched the first part of a two-part training course. Foodborne Outbreak Investigation and Response Team Roles and Responsibilities is an introductory level, self-paced, on-line web course designed to train users to rapidly identify, investigate and implement control measures for a foodborne disease outbreak.
Educate Future Food Safety Workforce
- University of Florida Graduate Certificate in Food Safety
- Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence, through the University of Florida, offers a public health graduate certificate with an emphasis in food safety. (Florida)
- University of Tennessee Student Outbreak Rapid Response Training [PDF - 2 pages]
- Tennessee Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence trains UT-SORRT students in foodborne outbreak response. The students assist with 6 outbreak investigations thus far, providing valuable surge capacity from this new program for local health jurisdictions. (Tennessee)
Improve Capacity of Information Systems
- Epi InfoTM 7 Survey Tool
Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence implements Epi InfoTM 7 survey tool. (Florida)
Evaluate and Communicate Best Practices
- The Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence developed a case series of an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with Angus beef patties in 2007 [PDF - 14 pages]
- The Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence products and resources.
- Training Needs Assessment [PDF - 22 pages]
- Colorado’s Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence develops a needs assessment to identify training needed in foodborne illness surveillance and outbreak response. (Colorado)
- Education and Training Needs Assessment [PDF - 33 pages]
- Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence conducts a needs assessment with state and local personnel involved in food safety activities in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico. (Florida)
- CIFOR Needs Assessment [PDF - 156 pages]
- Florida Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence conducts a needs assessment using the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response Toolkit with local foodborne outbreak responders in Florida. (Florida)
- Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence Website
- Minnesota Department of Health and University of Minnesota School of Public Health launch their new collaborative website. (Minnesota)
- Page last reviewed: October 14, 2015
- Page last updated: June 26, 2015
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