NEARS Food Safety Program Training (Webinar)

Form Approved
OMB No. 0920-0980
Exp. Date xx/xx/xxxx

Attachment 4- NEARS Food Safety Program Training (Webinar)

Food safety program personnel participating in NEARS will be required to attend a webinar
training session conducted by CDC staff. This training will cover:
• conducting environmental assessments
• identifying environmental factors,
• logging in and entering data into the web-based NEARS data entry system, and
• troubleshooting problems.
There will be no website, form, or presentation document associated with this training. Instead,
CDC personnel will be walking participants through the NEARS data entry system.

CDC estimates the average public reporting burden for this collection of information as 2 hours per
response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering
and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. An
agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of
information unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number. Send comments regarding
this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for
reducing this burden, to: CDC/ATSDR Information Collection Review Office, MS D-74; 1600
Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, Ga. 30333; ATTN: PRA (0920-0980)

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CONDUCTING ENVIRONMENTAL
ASSESSMENTS

2

3

4

Environmental Health Activities
Routine
Inspection
No specific information
to suggest that any
process is out of
control

Foodborne
Illness
Complaint

Environmental
Assessment
Triggered by an
outbreak of foodborne
illness

Receive, triage and
respond to report(s)
from the public about
possible foodborne
illness

Describe the influences
of people, equipment,
processes, food, and
economics

Guided by menu,
potential hazards, and
control measures to
mitigate hazards

Risk-based or may only
involve violations

Collect exposure
information and record
the complaint

Identify environmental
causes

National Environmental Assessment
Reporting System (NEARS)

Collects outbreak data on contributing factors and their environmental antecedents.

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NEARS Data Reporting Instrument
Part I:
Outbreak
Description

• Did the exposure(s) take place in a single or multiple
locations?
• Was this outbreak reported to a national surveillance system?

Part II:
Establishment
Description

• What is the establishment’s source of potable water?
• Do customers have direct access to unpackaged food such as
a buffet line or salad bar?
• Is this an independent or chain establishment?
• Does this establishment have a policy or procedure that
requires food workers to tell a manager when they are ill?

Part III:
Manager
Interview
Part IV:
Establishment
Observation

• Are hand sinks available in the employee restroom(s)?
• Were the temperatures of all foods measured in cold holding
at 41°F or below?

NEARS Data Reporting Instrument
Part V:
Suspected/
Confirmed
Food
Part VI:
Sampling

Part VII:
Contributing
Factors

• Was a specific ingredient or multi-ingredient food suspected
or confirmed in this outbreak?
• Is the ingredient an animal product, and if so, what kind?

• Were any samples taken?
• If environmental, where was the sample taken from?

• Were any contributing factors identified in this outbreak?
• During the outbreak investigation, what activities were used
to try to identify the contributing factors?

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Conducting Foodborne Illness Outbreak
Environmental Assessments
Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Step 4

Step 5

• Planning and Preparation
• Site Visit
• Assess Information and Identify Contributing Factors
• Make Recommendations for Control Strategies
• Reporting

Step 1: Planning and Preparation


Communicate and coordinate roles of others involved
in the foodborne illness outbreak investigation
 Epidemiology, laboratory and environmental health staff



Work with environmental health specialists/rapid
response teams to align observational data being
collected with NEARS observational data
Step 1

Step 2

• Site Visit

Step 3

• Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors

Step 4

• Make Recommendationsfor Control
Strategies

Step 5

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• Planning and Preparation

• Reporting

Step 2: Site Visit


Conduct Interviews
 Use NEARS Manager Interview (Part III)



Perform Walkthroughs and Observations
 Est. Description, Categorization, and Menu Review (Part II)
 Est. Observation (Part IV)



Collect Samples
 Sampling (Part VI)

Step 1

Step 2



Review Establishment Records

• Planning and Preparation
• Site Visit

Step 3

• Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors

Step 4

• Make Recommendationsfor Control
Strategies

Step 5

• Reporting

Step 3: Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors


Assess Information
 General Characterization of the Outbreak Response (Part I)
 Suspected/Confirmed Food (Part V)



Identify Contributing Factors
 Contributing Factors (Part VII)
• Contamination
• Proliferation/Amplification
• Survival



Identify Environmental Antecedents






Step 1

Step 2

People
Process
Equipment
Economics
Food

• Site Visit

Step 3

• Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors

Step 4

• Make Recommendationsfor Control
Strategies

Step 5

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• Planning and Preparation

• Reporting

Step 4: Make Recommendation for Control
Strategies


Immediate control strategies
 Stop the current outbreak
 Prevent further spread of the agent



Long-term control strategies
 Reduce the likelihood of future outbreaks

Step 1

Step 2

• Planning and Preparation
• Site Visit

Step 3

• Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors

Step 4

• Make Recommendationsfor Control
Strategies

Step 5

• Reporting

Step 5: Reporting


Summarize findings of the environmental assessment
 Record review of the establishment
 Interviews with the manager and food workers
 Observation of food preparation and food preparation and storage
areas
 Food flows for implicated foods/ingredients
 Environmental and food sampling
 Other reviews as needed to understand
how and why food became contaminated
• Planning and Preparation
Step 1

Step 2



Report findings to NEARS

Step 3

• Assess Information and Identify
Contributing Factors

Step 4

• Make Recommendationsfor Control
Strategies

Step 5

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• Site Visit

• Reporting

Who is Reporting Foodborne Illness Outbreak
Environmental Assessment Data to NEARS?

The Flow of Outbreak Data
1

People are
exposed to a
hazard

6

CDC reviews
environmental
assessment data
for accuracy and
analysis

2

3
Health
department is
notified of
possible
outbreak

People get sick
and may or may
not seek
treatment

5
Health
department
enters
environmental
assessment data
into NEARS

Health department 4
conducts an
environmental
assessment as part of
outbreak investigation

Data is summarized and published

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ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT
TRAINING

Training on Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
Environmental Assessments

o

Release:
April 2014

Over
3,600
Users

Current:
March 2016

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User Profile: All Users


88% live in the United States
 50 states and the District of Columbia



12% live in over 80 other countries

User Profile: Government Workers
Territorial,
1%

Tribal, 1%

Other, 5%
Federal,
12%

58% of registered users are
employed by government
agencies

State,
25%

Local,
58%

Percentages may equal >100% because of rounding.

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User Profile: Difference in Pretest and Mastery
Test Scores for All Users
100%
87%

90%
80%

Score

70%

62%

60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Pretest

Mastery Test

Percentages may equal >100% because of rounding.

Thank You!

For more information please contact Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30333
Telephone, 1-800-CDC-INFO (232-4636)/TTY:1-888-232-6348
E-mail: [email protected]
Web: www.cdc.gov
The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official
position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

National Center for Environmental Health
Environmental Health Services Branch

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