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: The Food Safety Modernization Act:
Implications for State Health
Departments
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Centers for Disease Control
Dale Morse, MD, MS
June 14, 2011
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases
Food Safety Modernization Act
“The most significant food-safety law of the
last 100 years.” Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary, Health and Human
Services
 More focus on prevention
 New safety standards
(e.g., produce)
 Inspections and compliance
 Import safety
 Surveillance
FSMA: CDC HAS ITS SHARE OF
WORK TO DO
“The act requires CDC to
strengthen the capacity of
state and local health
departments to respond
to foodborne outbreaks
and improve the
coordination and
integration of surveillance
systems and laboratory
networks.”
-Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, Director, CDC
CDC support for the
Food Safety Modernization Act

International expertise in
foodborne illness

Strong partnerships with
federal, state, and local public
health agencies

Laboratory, epidemiologic, and
environmental health networks

Systems and agreements for
surveillance and data exchange

Communications with the public
health community, industry, and
consumers
“This law represents a
sea change for food
safety in America,
bringing a new focus
on prevention.”
– Margaret A. Hamburg, MD
Commissioner of Food and Drugs
CDC’s role in the FSMA
CDC provides the vital link between illness in
people and the food safety systems of
government agencies and food producers.
Surveillance networks and
systems
Standardized tools and IT
systems
Information sharing platforms
Foodborne Illness Surveillance Systems
• Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet)
• National Electronic Norovirus Outbreak Network (CaliciNet)
• National Molecular Subtyping Network for Foodborne
Disease Surveillance (PulseNet)
• National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System—
enteric bacteria (NARMS)
• National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)
• National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS)
• Contributing factor surveillance (Environmental Health
Specialists Network, or EHS-Net)
• Public health laboratory information system (PHLIS)
CDC FSMA lead responsibilities

Enhancing foodborne illness surveillance systems to
improve the collection, analysis, reporting, and
usefulness of data

Forming a Working Group of diverse experts and
stakeholders to provide the Secretary advice and
recommendations on the improvement of foodborne
illness surveillance

Designating 5 Integrated Food Safety Centers of
Excellence to serve as resources for Federal, State,
and local public health professionals

Developing guidelines to manage the risk of food
allergy and anaphylaxis in schools and early
childhood education programs
FSMA Food Safety Integrated
Centers of Excellence

The Secretary, acting through [CDC] and in
consultation with a working group shall
designate 5 Integrated Food Safety Centers
of Excellence … to serve as resources for
Federal, State, and local public health
professionals to respond to foodborne
illness outbreaks.

Requires a public/private partnership
 Entities must be a state health department
 Partnered with 1 or more institutions of higher education
Potential additional FSMA activities
for CDC to support FDA include:
 Development and completion of the state and
local capacity review
 Development of the national strategy on food
safety
 Working with DHS on the integrated consortium
of laboratory networks
 Supporting FDA as it implements provisions of
the bill on hazard analysis and preventive
measures, performance standards, food safety
training for state and local officials, and other
activities
CDC FSMA Enhanced
Surveillance Responsibilities

coordinating and integrating Federal, State and
local foodborne illness surveillance systems

increasing participation in national networks

facilitating timely sharing of information

developing improved epidemiological tools

improving attribution of illness to specific foods
CDC FSMA Enhanced
Surveillance Responsibilities (cont.)

identifying new causes of illness

allowing timely public access to data

publishing annual summaries

promoting scientific research by academia

forming a Working Group to improve foodborne
disease surveillance
Reach out to state and local partners

Expand and improve national
surveillance for foodborne illness
with state and federal partners

Share data through new
approaches for messaging (RSS
feeds, Twitter)

Support and enhance PulseNet capacity at state
and national levels

Increase the number OutbreakNet sentinel sites
to build investigative capacity

Support the Council to Improve Foodborne
Outbreak Response
FSMA: Implications for states and CSTE’s Role

State HDs do foodborne disease surveillance

FSMA will monitor how that surveillance is done with or without new resources

What should CSTE’s role be?




Development of surveillance metrics
Development of a national foodborne disease surveillance plan
Development of a state prevention action plan
Other?