The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Environmental Health has released two new food safety tools. Foodborne illness is a significant problem in the United States, but addressing environmental causes can help prevent it. Explore the two tools below:

• The “e-Learning on Environmental Assessment of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks“ is a free interactive online course to help prepare individuals to serve on a team that investigates foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurants and other food service venues. Continuing education units are available.
• The “National Voluntary Environmental Assessment Information System“ is a new surveillance system targeted to jurisdictions that inspect and regulate restaurants and other food venues such as banquet facilities, schools, and other institutions. The system provides an avenue to capture underlying environmental assessment data that describes what happened and how events most likely led to a foodborne illness outbreak.

These tools were developed by CDC’s Environmental Health Specialists Network (EHS-Net). EHS-Net was established to contribute to a better understanding of the causes of restaurant-related foodborne illness outbreaks and to translate that understanding into improved prevention practices. For more information about EHS-Net projects, resources, and study findings on restaurant food safety practices, visit the EHS-Net webpage.