Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Reflections
on
National Food Safety Month
Food Safety at Jefferson
County Public Health (JCPH)
With National
Food Safety Month coming to an end in September, we reflect on the roles JCPH and
other public health departments across the United States play to help improve health
outcomes, including food safety. In Jefferson County, our Environmental Health
Specialists inspect more than 2,000 retail food establishments each year to
ensure the food being processed and served is safe for you and your family. In
addition to the regulatory piece of our work, we see our role as educators first
and foremost. We serve as a go-to resource for operators and community members
alike.
But why does
public health focus on food safety in the first place? The number one goal of
our retail food inspection program is to reduce foodborne illness in the
community. This goal drives all our regulation, inspection and education
efforts. For instance, we regularly provide local, timely information and data about
how and why foodborne illnesses occur. For some people, foodborne illness may
be just 24 hours of diarrhea, vomiting and discomfort, but for others who are
immune compromised — young, elderly or pregnant individuals — foodborne illness
can be a much larger risk to health.
Unpacking the Data
This infographic
summarizes the foodborne illness complaints received and investigated in
Jefferson County during 2016. Last year, we received 209 complaints, a 67
percent increase from 2015. (This may be because food safety and restaurant
outbreaks were very prevalent in the news during that time, allowing consumers
to wonder more about their own exposures and the handling of their food).
When complaints
are received in our office, we quickly gather information on where and when the
affected person ate, when they became ill, what their symptoms were and any
other exposures. We also capture a 72-hour food history in conjunction with
what they ate at the establishment in question to see if any other regulated
facilities could have been an exposure or cause of the illness. See the
infographic for the five top reported foods in Jefferson County.
Moving down the
infographic, the top preparation processes reported section outlines the
preparation types conducted at the establishment for the reported food. This
information — among several other items — are captured when the Environmental
Health Specialist either reaches out to the establishment’s manager/owner for
an interview, or the complaint triggers an onsite investigation where in-person
interviews and observations are made. During these onsite investigations, we look
for possible contributing factors, such as items that are known to cause
foodborne illness. For a foodborne illness to occur, three factors — a
contamination factor, amplification (or growth) factor and a survival factor — are
present, allowing pathogens to find their way into food and grow. Most of the
time, it is challenging to find all three, but we will piece together the puzzle
by identifying at least one or two of these factors. The graphs in the
infographic represent the top factors that were noted during investigations for
2016.
Lastly, we
investigated 30 confirmed foodborne illnesses that indicated a retail food
exposure, a 30 percent increase from 2015. A confirmed foodborne illness is when
a person — when ill with symptoms consistent with a foodborne illness — goes to
the doctor and submits a sample, usually a stool sample, to be tested for
foodborne illness pathogens. After these are tested at a laboratory, the
results are sent to the medical provider. If the results say they are positive
for a foodborne illness, those results are sent to their provider and are also
reported to the state public health department. In Colorado, certain infectious
diseases must be reported by law to investigate and protect public health and
transmission. Once these are received by the state health department, local
health departments are notified of these confirmed cases and the person is
interviewed to assess what their exposures could have been to lead to the
illness. If the person ate at a retail food establishment within their incubation
period (the time from when they got sick to when they had a certain exposure)
an onsite investigation occurs.
Always Learning: Ongoing
Training and Technical Assistance
Many times, it
is very difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of a foodborne illness. In the
Environmental Health Epidemiology program, we provide technical assistance and
training to our colleagues to develop our observational and interviewing skills
to assist with investigations. We also analyze our data along with state and
national level data to identify trends and plan for interventions for commonly
identified contributing factors. This all works together to achieve our main
goal of reducing foodborne illness in our community.
For more
information on foodborne illness and their pathogens, please visit the CDC
webpage at https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html
Are you a restaurant
owner or operator looking for food safety classes for your employees? Do you
want to look up inspection reports for your favorite restaurant? Visit our website here for information on online training,
our Team Up for Food Safety recognition program, retail food inspections and
all things Food Safety in Jefferson County.
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