Improving Food Protection through EHS-Net Research

 描述(由申请者提供)：罗德岛州卫生部(Health)十年来一直是环境健康专家网络(EHS-Net)的组成部分，在全国范围内影响着零售食品安全。为了支持2020年健康人食品安全目标，健康旨在通过干预措施减少食源性疾病、残疾和死亡，旨在减少生病的食品工人的食品污染，减少手污染，通过认证的厨房经理在食品机构的食品准备过程中始终在场来改善控制，以及提高监管效率。每一项干预都建立在以前的EHS-Net调查结果的基础上，这些调查结果确定了与食品安全问题相关的因素，但通过利用旨在通过将食品安全文化定位于食品服务机构来实现最大影响的系统方法，改变了研究范式。减少因食品工人生病而引起的疾病和疫情将是赠款的头两年的重点。国际扶轮EHS-Net将向所有国际扶轮食品机构发送干预包，加强检查，并比较干预交付前后的严重违规行为。将对部分机构的行为因素进行评估，并使用一项旨在衡量积极食品安全文化指标的调查，比较干预前后的情况。其他拟议的干预措施将遵循类似的设计，并在接下来的几年中进行。注册厨房经理干预的结果可以被用来证明修改食品法规要求在所有食品准备过程中都有注册经理，或者模仿罗德岛州的法律，该法律允许在存在严重的重复操作违规行为的情况下随时要求注册厨房经理。卫生部门已经建立了有效的协作结构，以实现所述目标。食品保护办公室、传染病流行病学司和国家卫生实验室位于中央，将确保有效、协调的应对措施。罗德岛大学也支持这一全州范围的倡议。Health将与EHS-Net合作，对所有EHS-Net研究项目进行数据分析。结果将通过科学期刊、演示文稿、可能对《食品法典》的修改以及其他方式向公共卫生界传播，以鼓励各国改变食品安全做法。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) has been an integral part of the Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net) for ten years and impacted retail food safety at a national level. In support of the Healthy People 2020 Food Safety goals, HEALTH aims to reduce foodborne illnesses, disabilities, and death through interventions that target reducing food contamination from ill food workers, reducing hand contamination, improving controls through certified kitchen managers always being present during food preparation at food establishments, and improving regulatory effectiveness. Each intervention builds on prior EHS-Net findings that have identified factors associated with food safety issues, but shifts the research paradigm by utilizing a systems approach aimed at achieving maximum impact by targeting the culture of food safety at food service establishments. Reducing illnesses and outbreaks due to ill food workers will be the focus of the first two years of the grant. RI EHS-Net will deliver an intervention packet to all RI food establishments, reinforce with inspections, and compare critical violations before and after the intervention delivery. Behavioral factors will be evaluated at a subset of establishments and compared pre and post intervention using a survey designed to measure indicators of a positive food safety culture. Other proposed interventions will follow similar designs and be conducted in the years that follow. Results from the Certified Kitchen Manager intervention could be used to justify changing the Food Code to require a certified manager during all food preparation, or to mimic the Rhode Island law which allows requiring a CKM at all times if there are serious repeat operational violations. HEALTH has established an effective collaborative structure to achieve the outlined objectives. The Office of Food Protection, Division of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, and the State Health Laboratory are centrally located and will ensure effective, coordinated responses. The University of Rhode Island also supports this statewide initiative. HEALTH will collaborate with EHS-Net in the data analysis of all EHS-Net research projects. Results will be disseminated to the public health community through scientific journals, presentations, possible changes to the Food Code, and other means to encourage national changes in food safety practices.