Presentation regarding Produce Traceability as presented to FDA & FSIS on December 9 & 10, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

1. FDA’s Role:
’ l
Epidemiological
investigation during
foodborne outbreaks
Katie Vierk, MPH
Vierk,
Epidemiologist
Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition
U.S. FDA

2. Epidemiology is crucial
FDA….
•Provides technical
assistance to CDC and
state/local agencies
•Reviews epidemiological,
laboratory and
environmental data
•Collaborates with CDC at
all phases of the
Food? investigation

3. Working together

4. Epi information needed for
p
traceback
FDA relies on states and CDC for epi
Dates of illness onset
Dates of exposure to implicated product
Epidemiologic curve showing illness
counts over time
Food history of cases
Determination of best food historians
and/or clusters of illness to trace

5. Challenges
Widespread, small numbers of cases over many states
• Lack of clusters of illness
• Ingredients of foods difficult to implicate

6. Challenges
Lack of identification of a single food
vehicle
Epi info evolves affects the traceback
Communication of epi facts
State resources

7. Considerations
for future efforts
Involve all potential parties early on in
g
investigation
Collaborate to identify innovative
epidemiological methods
id i l i l h d
Determine the amount of evidence
needed to officially implicate a food

8. Considerations
for future efforts
Develop standardize information needs
to inform the decision making process
gp
Cross train and exchange personnel
regularly
l l
Close-
Close-out calls to summarize and
discuss lessons learned

9. A traceback is only as good
as the
epidemiological investigation