By improving transparency and communication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can improve efforts to identify and respond to foodborne illness, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office .
Creating performance reviews of outbreak responses and being more transparent in communicating about outbreak investigations are two key areas that need improvement, the GAO report said.
The CDC faces a challenge in balancing the need to communicate quickly about foodborne illness outbreaks to prevent additional illnesses against the need to provide accurate and specific information, the report said.
Most of CDC’s outbreak investigations do not include communication to the public, according to the report; the CDC did not release information to the public on 30 of the 50 outbreaks it determined to be multistate outbreaks in 2016, the most recent year evaluated.
“In interviews with CDC officials, we found that CDC may decide not to communicate to the public during outbreaks if the agency cannot provide actionable steps for consumers to take,” the report said.
For example, the CDC may not communicate to the public about an outbreak if it cannot identify a food source or if it identifies the food source well after the product’s shelf life has passed. According to CDC officials, nonspecific warnings can have negative consequences, such as unnecessary food waste, and can be difficult for consumers, restaurants, or retailers to know how to translate to specific actions. However, the GAO report said some consumer groups are critical of the CDC’s communication about food safety risks.
“By making publicly available CDC’s decision-making process for communicating about multistate foodborne illness outbreaks, including the scenarios it considers to aid in decision-making, CDC could provide the public with greater assurance that CDC is managing foodborne illness outbreaks effectively,” the report said.
The report also said the CDC should spend more time and resources assessing its performance during food safety outbreaks.
“The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention should implement a program performance assessment system for its multistate foodborne illness outbreak investigations, including setting performance goals, assessing progress toward achieving those goals with performance measures, and conducting program evaluations,” the GAO report said.
Another area needing attention is the increasing clinical use of culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs).
“CIDTs diagnose foodborne illnesses faster and cheaper than traditional methods, but because they do not create DNA fingerprints that can specify a pathogen, they may reduce CDC’s ability to identify an outbreak,” the GAO report said.
A CDC working group recommended in May 2018 that CDC develop a plan to respond to the increasing use of CIDTs, the report said.
“Until CDC develops a plan to address the increasing use of CIDTs, it will face a growing risk that it will not have the information it needs to effectively and efficiently identify and respond to foodborne illness outbreaks,” the GAO report said.
The Department of Health and Human Services reported it agreed with the recommendations and would work over time to follow them.
