September Is National Food Safety Month
Celebrate Food Safety Month with These Environmental Health Resources
Are you ready to improve outbreak investigations in your jurisdiction?
Successful outbreak investigations include an environmental assessment where investigators look for evidence about how and why the outbreak happened. (Learn more.)
Contributing factors are “how” an outbreak happened and root causes are “why.” Identifying these factors and causes can help determine the steps needed to stop the outbreak and prevent future ones. Both contributing factors and root causes are key aspects of environmental assessments.
- Watch our short training video on contributing factors.
- Use our resources to identify root causes, including a
- One-pager on the five types of root causes
- Field guide on root causes for use during outbreak investigations
- In-depth reference manual for those reporting root cause data
Deepen your knowledge and take action around environmental assessments.
- Learn how to conduct environmental assessments as part of an outbreak investigation team and practice skills in an interactive virtual environment with our Environmental Assessment Training Series (EATS).
- Use CDC’s National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) to capture environmental assessment data from outbreak investigations.
What can you do to help prevent outbreaks?
Download and share handwashing social media graphics for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels.
Restaurant managers can develop and enforce policies that require workers with certain symptoms to
- Notify their managers and
- Stay home or not work with food.
Restaurant managers can also talk with sick workers. Learn three things restaurant managers need to know.
The Food and Drug Administration Food Code provides science-based guidance to improve food safety.
This year, FDA is commemorating 30 years of the Food Code. States that adopted key provisions from the Food Code had lower rates of foodborne norovirus outbreaks. However, not all states have adopted the latest edition of the Food Code.
The Retail Food Safety Regulatory Association Collaborative brings together key partners to promote increased adoption of the Food Code.
- Access the adoption toolkit for a map showing state adoption, links to articles on the impact of the Food Code, and more.
- Read the cover article [PDF – 1MB] of this month’s Journal of Environmental Health, which highlights how the Collaborative supports adoption of the Food Code.
- Read our column about the Collaborative’s most popular tools and resources to drive food safety.
Explore more resources from CDC and our partners.
For public health professionals
- Check out more CDC food safety resources for environmental health professionals.
- Save the date for the 2024 Integrated Foodborne Outbreak Response and Management (InFORM) Conference: the conference is January 22-24, 2024, and registration opens October 6, 2023.
- Celebrate World EH Day with this webinar hosted by the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) exploring career pathways in environmental health (webinar is on September 26)
- The NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model (RFFM) Grant Program is open for applications until October 11 (Q&A webinar for applicants is on September 26)
- Explore the updated toolkit for the 3rd Edition of the Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response from the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR)
For the public
- Explore CDC’s resources on safer versus riskier food choices for high-risk groups.
- Download CDC’s new norovirus awareness and handwashing social media graphics for use on your social media channels or websites.
- Explore educational tips from FDA, including a video on five red flags to look out for when shopping for meal kits.
- Watch FDA’s testimonial videos to educate retail and foodservice employees.