FDA Retail Food Safety Initiative Action Plan (September 2011)

FDA Retail Food Safety Initiative

Action Plan

September 2011

I. Summary

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Retail Food Safety Initiative is part of the

agency’s overall prevention-based, farm-to-table food safety strategy to reduce foodborne

illness. FDA’s actions in this initiative are prompted by its 10-year study of more than

800 retail food establishments to assess the control of five key foodborne illness risk

factors in nine types of retail operations.

FDA’s partnerships with the retail food industry, state, local, and tribal authorities, and

other government agencies are fundamental to this initiative and key to its success.

FDA identified four action areas:

1. Make the presence of certified food protection managers common practice.

2. Strengthen active managerial control at retail and ensure better compliance.

3. Encourage widespread, uniform, and complete adoption of the FDA Food Code.

4. Create an enhanced local regulatory environment for retail food operations.

FDA’s Retail Food Safety Initiative action plan outlines activities that FDA will carry out

over the next several years.

II. Background

Foodborne illness is a major cause of personal distress, disease, death, and economic

burden. Every year, millions of Americans become sick and many die from foodborne

illness, and as a result, the public has become increasingly aware of, and concerned

about, the safety of the food they eat.

There are many players in the farm-to-table chain. Each has some degree of

responsibility for food safety. Retail food establishment and foodservice operators have a

significant share of the responsibility for ensuring food safety. Like growers and

processors, they have a responsibility to reduce the risk of foodborne illness in their

operation.

The breadth of the retail food industry makes it an impossible task for FDA alone to

monitor the safety of food at the retail level. Retail food safety efforts are a cooperative

and collaborative effort amongst approximately 3,000 state, local, and tribal agencies and

the retail food industry.

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State, local, and tribal agencies are the primary regulators of the retail food and

foodservice industries in the United States. They are responsible for the inspection and

oversight of over one million retail food establishments in restaurants, grocery stores,

cafeterias, and vending machines, as well as, food services in health-care facilities,

schools, and correctional facilities. FDA strives to promote the application of science-

based food safety principles in retail and foodservice settings to reduce the incidence of

foodborne illness.

While state and local agencies have the authority to enforce food safety regulations,

remove unsafe products from store shelves, and bring action against violators, FDA

provides the guidance and training they need to protect food in their jurisdictions. FDA

assists regulatory agencies and the retail food industry by maintaining and updating the

Food Code, FDA’s model regulation for retail establishments for adoption by state, local,

and tribal agencies, providing training; performing evaluations of state programs; and

providing technical assistance. FDA works with its regulatory partners to encourage

retail food regulatory agencies to implement the Voluntary National Retail Food

Regulatory Program Standards, a comprehensive set of standards for state, local, and

tribal programs, which provides a framework for program self-assessment and continuous

improvement.

In October 2010, FDA released the results of its 10-year study tracking the retail food and

foodservice industry’s efforts to reduce the occurrence of employee behaviors and

practices related to five key foodborne illness risk factors (food from unsafe sources, poor

personal hygiene, inadequate cooking, improper holding of food (time and temperature),

and contaminated food surfaces and equipment).

(http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/RetailFoodProtection/FoodborneIllnessandRiskFa

ctorReduction/RetailFoodRiskFactorStudies/default.htm) At that time, FDA announced

its intention to step up efforts and work closely with state and local governments and

operators of retail food establishments to improve food safety practices and increase the

presence of certified food safety managers to oversee food safety practices and prevent

illness from contaminated food in retail food establishments.

The data indicate that having a certified food protection manager (CFPM) has a positive

impact on food safety and should become common industry practice. Many states and

localities require a CFPM and many in the retail industry employ them voluntarily as a

matter of good practice. The 2004 and 2009 reports revealed a correlation between

improved control of certain risk factors and the presence of a CFPM in many of the

facility types studied. For instance, the 2009 reports show that overall compliance in full

service restaurants was 70 percent with a CFPM, versus 58 percent without a CFPM. In

delicatessens, compliance was 79 percent with a CFPM, versus 64 percent without. For

seafood markets, compliance with a CFPM was 88 percent, versus 82 percent without. In

addition, in produce markets, compliance was 86 percent with a CFPM, versus 79 percent

without.

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Overall compliance improved over the three data collection periods in all nine of the

establishment types studied. The improvements were statistically significant in

elementary schools, fast food restaurants, full-service restaurants, meat and poultry

markets and departments, and produce markets and departments. Improvements,

although not statistically significant, were also seen in hospitals, nursing homes, deli

departments/stores, and seafood departments/stores.

However, the study also showed that continued improvements are still needed with

regard to three risk factors: poor personal hygiene, improper holding of food, and

contaminated food surfaces and equipment.

FDA’s Retail Food Safety Initiative builds on past progress through continued

collaboration with the retail industry and strengthened partnerships with state, local, and

tribal agencies in their standard setting and compliance efforts.

The goals of FDA’s Retail Food Safety Initiative are:

1. Make the presence of CFPM common practice.

 Work with the Conference of Food Protection (CFP) to modify the FDA

Food Code to expand the presence of CFPM.

 Work with our partners to encourage and facilitate the development of

effective training and certification for CFPM in retail and foodservice

establishments.

 Address the challenges of providing training for a workforce with a high

turnover rate and with various educational and cultural backgrounds.

2. Strengthen active managerial controls of food safety at the retail level to ensure

better compliance.

 Work with our partners to assess the effectiveness of various managerial

control strategies.

 Identify and share best practices.

 Assess and encourage implementation of regulatory agency initiatives for

active managerial control by food establishments.

 Work with the CFP to consider modifications to the FDA Food Code to

promote best practices.

3. Encourage widespread, uniform, and complete adoption of the FDA Food Code.

 Work with the retail food industry and state, local, and tribal authorities to

ensure that prevention-oriented, science-based food safety principles are

used at the retail level.

4. Create an enhanced local regulatory environment for retail food operations.

 Promote wider implementation by state, local, and tribal regulatory

programs of the FDA Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory

Programs Standards.

 Ensure widespread participation by local regulators in consistent, high

quality training through increased access and increased portability and

transferability of FDA training courses.

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 Seek increased multi-year funding for the state, local, and tribal food

safety programs as part of an integrated food safety system.

III. Action Plan

This action plan outlines the steps FDA will take to improve food safety practices in

retail food establishments. The plan focuses on the key areas where there is room for

improvement.

Goal 1:

Make the presence of certified food protection managers common practice

Objective 1:

Work with the CFP to modify the FDA Food Code to expand the presence of certified

food protection managers.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Develop and include a requirement in the Supplement to the 2009 FDA Food

Code requiring that each food establishment have at least one CFPM.

 Develop issues for the 2012 biennial meeting of the CFP to discuss removing

alternatives from the FDA Food Code for the Person-in-Charge being the CFPM.

 Strengthen industry support through continued collaborations with trade

associations and the retail food industry to make it mandatory to have a CFPM in

each food establishment.

Objective 2:

Work with our partners to encourage and facilitate the development of effective

training and certification for CFPMs in retail and foodservice establishments.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Establish formal partnerships with national retail and restaurant trade associations,

state associations, and other organizations to develop uniform messages,

standardized training programs, and promote the development and use of effective

training for food workers and certification programs for food protection

managers.

 Increase the percentage of public school foodservice operations with a CFPM.

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Goal 2:

Strengthen active managerial control of food safety at the retail level and ensure better

compliance.

Objective 1:

Work with our partners to assess the effectiveness of various managerial control

strategies.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Work with trade associations and other stakeholders to identify and gather

information from firms that have applied Hazard Analysis and Critical Control

Points (HACCP) approaches at retail.

 Examining if and how FDA recommendations have been effectively used by the

industry (individual firms and sector wide) and explore ways to address the

challenges of providing training for a workforce with a high turnover rate.

 Work with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)/Food Nutrition

Service (FNS) to gather information about the use of HACCP plans in school

cafeterias and the effectiveness of FDA’s guidance on HACCP at retail.

 Conduct outreach to ensure comments are solicited from all retail sectors,

particularly from small and very small businesses (independents).

Objective 2:

Identify and share best practices.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Compile information and develop materials identifying best practices and address

practices that have posed challenges.

 Update and revise agency recommendations to incorporate best practices into

FDA’s retail HACCP manuals for operators and regulators.

 As appropriate, establish additional regulatory requirements for preventive

measures at retail to control the key foodborne illness risk factors.

 Work with the existing state and local regulators and retail industry stakeholder

groups to promote the development and implementation of oral culture learning

systems to educate food protection managers and food handlers about risk factors

and to change behaviors that impact food safety.

 Develop a DVD using testimonials that industry and regulatory organizations can

use to aid in achieving behavior change in food workers, make it available, and

promote it through traditional communications such as posters and flyers and

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Objective 3:

Assess and encourage implementation of regulatory agency initiatives for active

managerial control by food establishments.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Review existing internal and external active managerial control pilots to

determine the effectiveness of mandating management controls.

 Consider design components of the next FDA Risk Factor Study, Center for

Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studies, and other research to supply

information on best practices in existing managerial control systems.

Objective 4:

Work with the CFP to consider modifications to the FDA Food Code to promote best

practices.

 Address implementation of required procedures as a duty of the Person-in-Charge

in the supplement to the 2009 FDA Food Code.

 Work with the CFP to explore modifications to the FDA Food Code and ways to

increase the use of systems of active managerial control of food safety hazards.

Goal 3:

Encourage widespread, uniform, and complete adoption of the FDA Food Code.

Objective 1:

Work with the retail industry and state, local, and tribal authorities to ensure that

prevention-oriented, science-based food safety principles are used at the retail level.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Develop and conduct a national campaign to increase the number of jurisdictions

that have conducted a self-assessment against Program Standard number 1 of

FDA’s Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards.

 Promote conformance with Program Standard number 1 by strongly encouraging

funding and participating in state food safety task forces and seminars that

emphasize FDA Food Code adoption.

 Publicly laud jurisdictions that conform to Standard number 1 to create natural

competition among jurisdictions.

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Goal 4:

Create an enhanced local regulatory environment for retail food operations

Objective 1:

Promote wider implementation by state, local, and tribal regulatory programs of the

FDA Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Programs Standards.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Establish a cooperative agreement with National Association of County and City

Health Officials (NACCHO) to pilot and share innovative approaches to retail

food protection.

 Use FoodSHIELD and other web-based communication tools to create a continual

dialogue between regional food specialists and state, local, and tribal jurisdictions.

Objective 2:

Ensure universal participation by local regulators in consistent, high-quality training

through increased access to training and increased portability and transferability of

FDA courses.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 Further develop FDA’s Food Code training course to enhance delivery and

accessibility of the course regionally and locally.

 Examine and revise, as appropriate, FDA’s Risk-based Inspection Course to

include active managerial control; the role of the inspector as a systems analyst;

consultative inspections; and techniques to change behavior, and enhance its

delivery and accessibility, regionally and locally.

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Objective 3:

Seek increased multi-year funding for the state, local, and tribal food safety programs

as part of an integrated food safety system.

Action:

To achieve this objective, the following steps are planned:

 FDA will seek funding for state, local, and tribal jurisdictions seeking to meet the

Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards and the Manufactured Food

Regulatory Program Standards to enhance capacity building and foodborne illness

prevention.

 FDA will work with state, local, and tribal jurisdiction partners, as appropriate, to

advocate retail food safety priorities.