Welcome

The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) is a multidisciplinary working group convened to increase collaboration across the country and across relevant areas of expertise in order to reduce the burden of foodborne illness in the United States. The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) co-chair CIFOR with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne illness affects one in six Americans annually. Of the estimated 48 million who become sick from a foodborne illness each year, 128,000 thousand people are hospitalized and 3,000 individuals die. Many organizations are involved in efforts to mitigate the effects of these illnesses on public health. Outbreak identification and investigation is one of the key areas where multidisciplinary public health professionals must collaborate. CIFOR was created to develop and share guidelines, processes, and products that will facilitate good foodborne outbreak response.

Featured Clearinghouse Tools:

Report: Assessment of Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response and Investigation Capacity in U.S. Environmental Health Food Safety Regulatory Programs

The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) released a report on the assessment of the capacity of local and state agencies to undertake foodborne illness outbreak investigation and response. The report includes information on the potential impacts of ongoing budget reductions on staffing, training, outbreak response, control, and prevention activities, as well as the current status of inter-agency cooperation to share resources. The assessment findings reveal a significant overall reduction in foodborne illness program capacity. Click here to access it.