Stop Food Outbreaks with Environmental Assessments

Man and woman sitting at desk reviewing data in front of laptop

Food safety investigators can use environmental assessments to improve food safety. Environmental assessments are an important part of outbreak investigations. They can determine how and why germs got into the environment and spread to make people sick, and they provide information that can stop ongoing outbreaks and prevent them in the future.

Jackie Jones*, a recent university graduate who majored in environmental health, just started a job as the new food safety specialist at Hillside County Health Department. Rick, her manager, seemed happy she was there. “We had a new policy come down from the state that said we had to conduct environmental assessments on all reported outbreaks, but I told my boss that we just don’t have the people to commit to that. I told them if they wanted us to do them, we needed another staff member. And that’s how we got you!”

A few days after Jackie started her job at HCHD, she met with Rick. “Jackie, I want to show you a new program the state signed us up for. It has something to do with those environmental assessments I told you about.”

CDC’s National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) banner shows six images of various food preparation

CDC’s National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) is a surveillance system to capture environmental assessment data from foodborne illness outbreak investigations.

Rick went on to show her CDC’s National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS), a surveillance system to capture environmental assessment data from foodborne illness outbreak investigations. Jackie knew U.S. health departments report epidemiological and laboratory data on foodborne disease outbreaks to NORS; she didn’t know they used NEARS to report environmental assessment data not routinely collected in NORS.

As Jackie studied the information about NEARS, she recognized something from her undergraduate studies—a training called Environmental Assessment Training Series (EATS). She remembered using a few lessons from the training to learn about contributing factors in her food safety course. Eagerly, she finished the training and was surprised at how much she learned.

A few weeks later, Jackie got a call from Rick. “We’ve been asked to join an investigation team for a restaurant outbreak at Dina’s Family Kitchen in town. You’re our food safety expert, so go and see what it’s all about!”