FDA and CDC Agree to Partner to Reduce Foodborne Illness in Retail and Foodservice Establishments
On October 4th, the FDA and CDC announced that the agencies have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding, renewing their collaboration to reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness in retail and foodservice establishments. The stated purpose of the partnership is to “help increase the consistency and capacity of retail food protection programs across the country, promote a general culture of food safety, and facilitate continued communication between the FDA and CDC in order to assist state, local, tribal, territorial, and industry partners.”
More specifically, the agencies’ goals related to reducing occurrence of foodborne illness are as follows:
- Increase uniformity, consistency, and capacity of state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) retail food protection programs;
- Promote industry’s active managerial control (AMC) of foodborne illness risk factors and promote a culture of food safety; and
- Maintain a strong FDA National Retail Food Team (NRFT) and CDC National Center for Environmental Health (NCEH) workforce to assist STLT partners.
- Improve STLT’s effectiveness in conducting risk-based inspections and foodborne illness investigations.
- Promote a culture of food safety and food safety management systems within retail and foodservice establishments (including facilities that serve highly susceptible populations (HSP) such as institutional foodservice, correctional facilities, schools, and healthcare facilities).
- Improve research in support of foodborne illness risk factor reduction.
- Improve the knowledge, skills, and abilities of FDA NRFT and CDC NCEH staff.