Environmental Health Specialists Network(EHS-Net)- Practice Based Research to Improve Food Safety

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tennessee EHS-Net Application 2015 Foodborne pathogens cause substantial burden of illness. The Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) considers involvement in EHS-Net vital to promoting safe practices, educating environmentalists and epidemiologists in outbreak investigation, preventing illness, adding to the body of generalizable knowledge about food safety and environmental contamination, and demonstrating to the public the value of food safety measures. This application will demonstrate our EHS-Net objectives, our history of EHS-Net accomplishments, and our future EHS-Net plans. We will continue the interagency approach in EHS-Net Food Program by supporting two full- time environmentalists in two of the state's large, comprehensive food safety programs. These environmental specialists and the EHS-Net PI and EHS-Net Co-PIs will actively contribute to all aspects of the four Tennessee food safety projects listed below and will participate in steering committee and working group calls. New projects will include the following: 1) evaluate, promote, and implement the National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information system (NVEAIS); 2) evaluation and training approaches to food establishment use of special processes; 3) prospective knowledge, attitude, and perceptions survey among complaint-based outbreak surveillance system callers; 4) environmental sampling for norovirus during foodborne outbreaks, implications for environmental health remediation and response. Continued participation in multi-state EHS-Net studies will also remain a high priority.