"The work completed at our CIFOR Toolkit Workshop will improve Nebraska’s ability to respond quickly to foodborne outbreaks, thereby reducing the number of cases of foodborne illnesses. Specifically, the Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department developed ten recommendations for action items, timelines and staff responsible for each. One participant described the Workshop as ‘super valuable,’ attributing it to generating ‘more communication and coordination than the state has had in recent history.’ Our progress is a solid indicator of the workshop’s success because that is what CIFOR is all about – reducing the disease burden caused by foodborne illness."

Scott Holmes - Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department

"The CIFOR Toolkit has been a prominent and indispensable tool used by the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence (CoE). Specifically, Minnesota CoE staff have facilitated CIFOR Toolkit exercises in three states to bring together laboratorians, epidemiologists, public health nurses, and environmental health specialists to critically evaluate and plan improvements to their surveillance and response efforts. The CIFOR Toolkit was the essential framework that guided these discussions."

Kirk Smith - Minnesota COE

"Boulder County Public Health’s Food Safety Program is enrolled in the FDA’s Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards, which directs programs to have a “systematic approach in place for the detection, investigation, response, documentation and analysis of alleged food-related incidents.” For that reason, our program has relied heavily on the CIFOR Guidelines for the development of our policies and procedures. We are pleased to say that we successfully met that Program Standard in 2012 and continue to look to the CIFOR Guidelines to see how we can improve our program."

Gina Bare - Boulder County Public Health