Investing in Retail Food Safety: Assessing the NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model Grant Program's Distribution Through an SDOH Lens.

Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) have a major impact on community health and quality of life. Healthy People 2030 has an increased focus on SDOH, given their contribution to health disparities and inequalities as a social phenomenon. Despite advances in food hygiene and sanitation, structural disparities related to SDOH leave food systems vulnerable. The Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (VNRFRPS), otherwise known as the Retail Program Standards initiative is part of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s strategy for prevention-based food safety to reduce foodborne illness. The National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) work in partnership to administer the NEHA-FDA Retail Flexible Funding Model (RFFM) Grant Program. The program provides funding to State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) retail food regulatory agencies as they achieve and advance conformance with the VNRFRPS. In its first year (Calendar Year 2022) of the 3-year cycle, the grant program awarded $6.87M in funding to over 200 jurisdictions nationwide. The research note shares preliminary findings of utilizing Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to map the first-year SLTT grant program awardees, with a selection of their jurisdiction's Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) metrics. Integration and analysis of program-specific grant funding and mapping with the relevant health determinants provide an opportunity to understand further the need for comprehensive program investments for greater impact and improvements in public health.

Foodborne Outbreak Rates Associated with Restaurant Inspection Grading and Posting at the Point of Service: Evaluation Using National Foodborne Outbreak Surveillance Data.

ABSTRACT: A previously conducted national survey of restaurant inspection programs associated the practice of disclosing inspection results to consumers at the restaurant point of service (POS) with fewer foodborne outbreaks. We used data from the national Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) to assess the reproducibility of the survey results. Programs that participated in the survey accounted for approximately 23% of the single-state foodborne illness outbreaks in restaurant settings reported to FDOSS during 2016 to 2018. Agencies that disclosed inspection results at the POS reported fewer outbreaks (mean = 0.29 outbreaks per 1,000 establishments) than those that disclosed results online (0.7) or not at all (1.0). Having any grading method for inspections was associated with fewer reported outbreaks than having no grading method. Agencies that used letter grades had the lowest numbers of outbreaks per 1,000 establishments. There was a positive association (correlation coefficient, R2 = 0.29) between the mean number of foodborne illness complaints per 1,000 establishments, per the survey, and the mean number of restaurant outbreaks reported to FDOSS (R2 = 0.29). This association was stronger for bacterial toxin-mediated outbreaks (R2 = 0.35) than for norovirus (R2 = 0.10) or Salmonella (R2 = 0.01) outbreaks. Our cross-sectional study findings are consistent with previous observations that linked the practice of posting graded inspection results at the POS with reduced occurrence of foodborne illnesses and outbreaks associated with restaurants. Support for foodborne illness surveillance programs and food regulatory activities at local health agencies is foundational for food safety systems coordinated at state and federal levels.

How can Environmental Health Practitioners contribute to ensure population safety and health during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the relevance of public health professionals all over the world, in particular Environmental Health Practitioners (EHPs), who played a major role in the containment of the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2. However, as in past disasters, their involvement was oriented towards urgent tasks, and did not fully utilize EHPs' competences and skills. Additionally, due to limited resources, during emergencies EHPs may temporarily transition away from their day-to-day role, potentially increasing other public health and safety risk factors without appropriate surveillance or intervention. To overcome this and prepare for possible future pandemics, it is important to identify and discuss the key roles of EHPs in different countries, providing a common framework for practices that can contribute to population safety and health. To this end, an international workgroup was established to discuss current environmental health practices and challenges across different countries during the pandemic. Findings from discussions concluded that, despite the observed differences across the countries, EHPs are one of the main public health emergency preparedness and response actors. However, since resources are still lagging significantly behind need, we argue that the role of these professionals during pandemics should be focused on practices that have higher impact to support population health and safety.

Uncovering Environmental Health: An Initial Assessment of the Profession's Health Department Workforce and Practice.

Environmental health (EH) professionals provide critical services and respond to complex and multifaceted public health threats. The role of these professionals is continually re-emphasized by emergencies requiring rapid and effective responses to address environmental issues and ensure protection of the public's health. Given the prominence of the EH profession within the public health framework, assessing the governmental health department workforce, practice, and current and future challenges is crucial to ensure EH professionals are fully equipped and prepared to protect the nation's health. Such an understanding of the EH profession is lacking; therefore, we initiated Understanding the Needs, Challenges, Opportunities, Vision, and Emerging Roles in Environmental Health (UNCOVER EH). Through a web-based survey, we identified EH professional demographics, characteristics, education, practice areas, and aspects of leadership and satisfaction. We distributed the survey to a convenience sample of EH professionals working in health departments, limiting the generalizability of results to the entire EH workforce. The results were strengthened, however, by purposive sampling strategies to represent varied professional and workforce characteristics in the respondent universe. The UNCOVER EH initiative provides a primary source of data to inform EH workforce development initiatives, improve the practice, and establish uniform benchmarks and professional competencies.