Advancing Foodborne Illness Prevention and Outbreak Response in the New York City Retail Food Service Environment

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Project Summary/Abstract It is estimated that there are almost 1.5 million cases of foodborne illness (FBI) in New York City (NYC) each year, and more than 6,000 cases are serious enough to require hospitalization. Out of the 27 FBI outbreaks in NYC that were reported to the CDC National Outbreak Reporting Systems (NORS) in 2018, 22 (81%) were attributable to restaurants. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is responsible for inspecting retail food service establishments and responding to FBI outbreaks associated with them. The NYC EHS-Net Program proposes to advance FBI prevention and outbreak response by developing data analytic and informatics tools to improve measurement and surveillance of risk factors identified during regulatory inspections and outbreak investigations. We will collect and use data on environmental antecedents of FBI outbreaks to inform environmental public health practice in NYC, and we will report data from environmental assessments to the CDC National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS). We will also evaluate impact and implementation of the NYC mandatory sick leave law and a restaurant letter-grading program that was recently expanded to mobile food vendors, in addition to other policy and regulatory approaches to reducing FBI risks. The National EHS-Net Program conducts multi-site research studies that aim to inform public health practice in the area of retail food safety. NYC has participated and will continue to participate fully in these studies.