Advancing Foodborne Illness Prevention and Outbreak Response in the New York City Retail Food Service Environment

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Principal Investigator: Wendy  McKelvey
Organization: FUND FOR PUBLIC HEALTH IN NEW YORK, INC.
Fiscal Year: 2024
Award: $192,587
Funding agency: National Center for Environmental Health

Project Summary/Abstract
It is estimated that there are almost 1.5 million cases of foodborne illness (FBI) in New York City
(NYC) each year, and more than 6,000 cases are serious enough to require hospitalization. Out
of the 27 FBI outbreaks in NYC that were reported to the CDC National Outbreak Reporting
Systems (NORS) in 2018, 22 (81%) were attributable to restaurants. The NYC Department of
Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) is responsible for inspecting retail food service
establishments and responding to FBI outbreaks associated with them. The NYC EHS-Net
Program proposes to advance FBI prevention and outbreak response by developing data
analytic and informatics tools to improve measurement and surveillance of risk factors identified
during regulatory inspections and outbreak investigations. We will collect and use data on
environmental antecedents of FBI outbreaks to inform environmental public health practice in
NYC, and we will report data from environmental assessments to the CDC National
Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS). We will also evaluate impact and
implementation of the NYC mandatory sick leave law and a restaurant letter-grading program
that was recently expanded to mobile food vendors, in addition to other policy and regulatory
approaches to reducing FBI risks. The National EHS-Net Program conducts multi-site research
studies that aim to inform public health practice in the area of retail food safety. NYC has
participated and will continue to participate fully in these studies.