Retail Food Safety Consultation Service: Applying Behavior Change Models to Incre

Project Summary/Abstract The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department (LLCHD) Food SafetyProgram's primary goal is preventing foodborne illness through a comprehensiveprogram based on the 2009 FDA Food Code and on FDA's Retail Program Standards. LLCHD retail food inspection trend data revealed that violations of key riskfactors for foodborne illness had stabilized and a subset of establishments continued tohave significantly higher numbers of Critical Item Violations. While many regulatoryprograms have worked with retail food industry to implement Active Managerial Controls(AMC), success has been limited. The goal of LLCHD's proposal is to reduce foodborne illness originating fromretail food establishments and the outcome will be fewer illnesses, hospitalizations anddeaths. LLCHD's objective is to strengthen AMCs of food safety at the retail levelthrough implementing an innovative Retail Food Safety Consultation Service utilizing atwo-part behavioral change intervention strategy. In part one, LLCHD will engage Food Protection Managers in a community-based social marketing initiative based on a scientifically proven community behaviorchange model developed by environmental psychologist McKenzie-Mohr - FosteringSustainable Behavior Community-Based Social Marketing. LLCHD will coordinate a'Food Managers for Excellence' Task Force, whose charge will be to apply this modelto increase the implementation of AMCs in retail food establishments. In part two, aRetail Food Safety Consultant will provide intensive on-site consultative intervention toFood Protection Managers in the poorest performing retail food establishments,resulting in the implementation of AMCs for FDA's 'Five Key Risk Factors' forfoodborne illness. LLCHD will collaborate with the retail food industry, State agencies,FDA, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in this project. This proposal provides a unique opportunity for FDA to test two proven behaviorchange models that have had limited application in retail food regulatory programs. If successful, this model will change the field of practice and provide new strategies toachieve a higher level of retail food safety across the U.S., reducing foodborne illness.