Enhancing and Expanding the Retail Food Safety Consortium

NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY: The U.S. retail food industry currently includes over one million establishments. Regardless of the size or complexity of an establishment, the on-site management must share responsibility for preventing foodborne illness. On-site management clearly depends on assistance from food safety professionals to fulfill this responsibility. Shrinking budgets, new technologies, emerging pathogens, and changing consumer demands place unprecedented demands on food safety professionals. At present the Retail Food Safety Consortium is comprised of food safety professionals from five land-grant universities, professional societies, and governmental agencies. Its goal is to expand and facilitate communication between retail food safety professionals at all levels. The initial objectives to achieve this goal are to: 1) enhance collaborations between retail food safety professionals; 2) identify and scientifically validate retail food safety practices; 3) collect, develop, review, and disseminate retail food safety resources; and 4) identify and prioritize retail food safety needs.

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APPROACH: Objective 1. An AES Multi-state Research coordinating committee will be created using established protocols to identify and invite individuals who conduct retail food safety research. Annual AES committee meetings will be held during Consortium roundtables. Each year the Consortium will convene a one-day roundtable at the annual meetings of one of the professional organizations: NEHA in 2008; AFDO in 2009; and IAFP in 2010. To ensure active collaboration is occurring between groups, association partners (AFDO, NEHA, and IAFP) will each appoint a liaison who will work between their organization and the Consortium. <P>
Objective 2. To support food safety professionals, proven practices in retail food safety will be identified and validated. Proven practices will be solicited from Consortium members. All practices will be scientifically reviewed and modified, if necessary, to create a repository of proven practices. In some cases limited laboratory observations will be used to validate a practice. <P>Objective3. This objective focuses on defining and refining the tools and information food safety professionals have readily available to them. Dissemination of Consortium information is vital to its success. One of the main outcomes is to share information and resources. Therefore, a website listing reviewed food safety materials and research papers will be created. Research, education, and outreach information that support retail food safety efforts would be identified, reviewed, and then posted to the newly formed website. Lastly, a series of 26, ten-minute food safety training modules will be prepared. The modules will become an educational tool that can be given to operators both proactively and reactively. <P>Objective 4. Collect, prioritize, and communicate retail food safety research and outreach priorities. Create a framework for assessing and prioritizing needs. Assess the research and education needs of all stakeholders, particularly front-line food safety professionals, such as sanitarians.