Understanding the Relation between Establishment Food Safety Management and Salmonella Risk Factor Violations Cited during Routine Inspections.

Restaurants are a frequent setting for outbreaks and sporadic cases of Salmonella. The relationship among food safety management characteristics, compliance with procedures to reduce Salmonella-associated risk factors (as found during routine inspections), and the likelihood that an establishment has experienced a sporadic Salmonella case was assessed. Individual risk factor violations associated with Salmonella transmission pathways were identified by a literature review.

Risk Factor Violations Associated With Sporadic Cases.

FDA promotes assessment of routine restaurant inspection programs to measure trends in the occurrence of risk factors and compare data with national benchmarks. Reductions in the occurrence of risk factors should be accompanied by reductions in the occurrence of foodborne illnesses. The objectives of this study were to: (1) assess changes in risk factor violations in Bloomington restaurants between 2010 and 2015, in order to (2) compare patterns of risk factor violations in Bloomington restaurants that served sporadic cases from 2010 to 2015 to these observed trends.

Understanding the Relation between Establishment Food Safety Management and Risk Factor Violations Cited during Routine Inspections.

Certified Food Manager (CFM) training can help ensure proper food safety practices for decreasing risk factor violations associated with foodborne illness. However, the effectiveness of food safety management also depends on the authority of the person in charge (PIC) and the added value of third-party inspectors auditing food safety policies and practices. To examine the effect of food safety management characteristics on risk factor violations cited on routine inspections, we evaluated results of 546 routine inspections in the cities of Bloomington and Richfield, MN, between 2016 and 2017.

Understanding the Relationships Between Inspection Results and Risk of Foodborne Illness in Restaurants.

Restaurants are important settings for foodborne disease outbreaks and consumers are increasingly using restaurant inspection results to guide decisions about where to eat. Although public posting of inspection results may lead to improved sanitary practices in the restaurant, the relationship between inspection results and risk of foodborne illness appears to be pathogen specific. To further examine the relationship between inspection results and the risk of foodborne disease outbreaks, we evaluated results of routine inspections conducted in multiple restaurants in a chain (Chain A) that was associated with a large Salmonella outbreak in Illinois.