National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Centers for Disease Control

June 14, 2011

: The Food Safety Modernization Act: Implications for State Health

Departments

National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases

Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases

Dale Morse, MD, MS

Food Safety Modernization Act “The most significant food-safety law

of the last 100 years.” Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Health and Human Services

More focus on prevention New safety standards (e.g., produce)

Inspections and compliance Import safety Surveillance

“The act requires CDC to strengthen the capacity of state and local health departments to respond to foodborne outbreaks and improve the coordination and integration of surveillance systems and laboratory networks.”

-Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, Director, CDC

FSMA: CDC HAS ITS SHARE OF

WORK TO DO

CDC support for theFood Safety Modernization Act

International expertise in foodborne illness

Strong partnerships with federal, state, and local public health agencies

Laboratory, epidemiologic, and environmental health networks

Systems and agreements for surveillance and data exchange

Communications with the public health community, industry, and consumers

“This law represents a sea change for food safety in America, bringing a new focus on prevention.”

– Margaret A. Hamburg, MDCommissioner of Food and Drugs

CDC’s role in the FSMACDC provides the vital link between illness in people and the food safety systems of government agencies and food producers.

Surveillance networks and systems

Standardized tools and IT systems

Information sharing platforms

Foodborne Illness Surveillance Systems

• Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet)

• National Electronic Norovirus Outbreak Network (CaliciNet)

• National Molecular Subtyping Network for Foodborne Disease Surveillance (PulseNet)

• National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System—enteric bacteria (NARMS)

• National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

• National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS) • Contributing factor surveillance (Environmental

Health Specialists Network, or EHS-Net) • Public health laboratory information system (PHLIS)

CDC FSMA lead responsibilities Enhancing foodborne illness surveillance

systems to improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and usefulness of data

Forming a Working Group of diverse experts and stakeholders to provide the Secretary advice and recommendations on the improvement of foodborne illness surveillance  

Designating 5 Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence to serve as resources for Federal, State, and local public health professionals

Developing guidelines to manage the risk of food allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early childhood education programs

FSMA Food Safety Integrated Centers of Excellence

The Secretary, acting through [CDC] and in consultation with a working group shall designate 5 Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence … to serve as resources for Federal, State, and local public health professionals to respond to foodborne illness outbreaks.

Requires a public/private partnership Entities must be a state health department Partnered with 1 or more institutions of higher

education

Potential additional FSMA activities for CDC to support

FDA include: Development and completion of the state and

local capacity review Development of the national strategy on food

safety Working with DHS on the integrated consortium

of laboratory networks Supporting FDA as it implements provisions of the

bill on hazard analysis and preventive measures,

performance standards, food safety training for

state and local officials, and other activities

CDC FSMA Enhanced Surveillance Responsibilities

coordinating and integrating Federal, State and local foodborne illness surveillance systems

increasing participation in national networks

facilitating timely sharing of information

developing improved epidemiological tools

improving attribution of illness to specific foods

CDC FSMA Enhanced Surveillance Responsibilities (cont.)

identifying new causes of illness

allowing timely public access to data

publishing annual summaries

promoting scientific research by academia

forming a Working Group to improve foodborne disease surveillance

Reach out to state and local partners Expand and improve national

surveillance for foodborne illness with state and federal partners

Share data through new approaches for messaging (RSS feeds, Twitter) Support and enhance PulseNet capacity at state and national levels

Increase the number OutbreakNet sentinel sites to build investigative capacity

Support the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response

FSMA: Implications for states and CSTE’s Role

State HDs do foodborne disease surveillance

FSMA will monitor how that surveillance is done -with or without new resources

What should CSTE’s role be? Development of surveillance metrics Development of a national foodborne disease

surveillance plan Development of a state prevention action plan Other?