Welcome

The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) is a multidisciplinary working group convened to increase collaboration across the country and across relevant areas of expertise in order to reduce the burden of foodborne illness in the United States. The Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) co-chair CIFOR with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne illness affects one in six Americans annually. Of the estimated 48 million who become sick from a foodborne illness each year, 128,000 thousand people are hospitalized and 3,000 individuals die. Many organizations are involved in efforts to mitigate the effects of these illnesses on public health. Outbreak identification and investigation is one of the key areas where multidisciplinary public health professionals must collaborate. CIFOR was created to develop and share guidelines, processes, and products that will facilitate good foodborne outbreak response.

In the Spotlight:

CIFOR is pleased to announce the release of the Toolkit for the Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response! This Toolkit has been developed to aid in the implementation of the Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response at the state and local levels. Please click here to learn more about the Toolkit and to download the documents.

Featured Clearinghouse Tools:

Are you conducting interviews for routine surveillance of foodborne illness? The following tools recently added by the Minnesota Department of Health are available to assist you: Routine Salmonella and STEC Interview Form, Routine Campylobacter Interview Form, Routine Cryptosporidium Interview Form, and Routine Shigella Interview Form. These tools are found in the CIFOR Clearinghouse, CIFOR's online repository of food safety resources.