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

1. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Stage 1: Epidemiology and
Identify the Food

2. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
FSIS Applied Epidemiology Division

3. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
How does FSIS become aware of
clusters (potential outbreaks)?
• Reports from local, state, territorial p
p public
health partners
• CDC and PulseNet
• Consumer Complaint Monitoring System
• Oth f d l agencies (
Other federal i (e.g. FDA military,
FDA, ilit
National Park Service)
• News reports, listservs, etc.

4. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
How is product tracing used by FSIS
when investigating outbreaks?
• Determine the source of product causing
p g
illness (as far back as records allow)
• Identify distribution of potentially
adulterated product (trace forward)
• During hypothesis generation help rule in
generation,
or out certain vehicles based on
distribution patterns supplier commonality
patterns,

5. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
“As far back as records allow”
• If records do not exist or are of very p
y poor
quality, determining which product to recall
p
is often impossible
• Poor quality records often slow traceback
and, therefore, delay regulatory action

6. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
FSIS Investigations and Watches
Fiscal Years 2007-2009

7. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Epidemiology & Traceback
• 2008 Salmonella Typhimurium
– FSIS carried out traceback when poultry
initially suspected, results assisted hypothesis-
generation
– Outbreak ultimately linked to contaminated
peanut butter

8. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Epidemiology & Traceback
• 2009 E. coli O157:H7
– Two outbreaks linked to ground beef in the
Northeast
–TTraceback carried out i t d
b k i d t in tandem with
ith
epidemiologic investigation led to more timely
in-plant
in plant action by FSIS

9. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Some real traceback scenarios
• Trace to retail level: no grinding logs
• Trace to retail level: multiple suppliers
• Trace to processor: multiple suppliers or
can’t determine specific dates of
production
• Trace to slaughter plant, can’t determine
specific dates of production
• Trace to farm?

10. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Reasons for unsuccessful
investigations
investigations*
• 4 - Insufficient Product Information
Provided by Public Health Partner
P id d b P bli H lth P t
• 12 - Insufficient Product Information
Provided by Retail or Distributor
• 4 - Lack of Epidemiologic Information
• 2 - Unable to Locate Product for Testing
*Not included: investigations hampered by p
g p y poor information,
,
but not completely unsuccessful. Most investigations
suffer at least partially from poor product information.

11. United States Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
Additional Information
Robert Teclaw, DVM, PhD
Director, Applied Epidemiology Division
Robert.Teclaw@fsis.usda.gov / (202) 690-6045
http://www.fsis.usda.gov
p g