Collaboration for food safety and health improvements
Washington State Department of Health (DOH) partnership with the University of Washington (UW) has been chosen by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as the nation’s newest Integrated Food Safety Center of Excellence (CoE).
In this partnership, CDC worked to ensure health security and contribute to a healthy economy by providing tools and resources for food safety and foodborne illness surveillance to local, state, and federal public health officials and other stakeholders. Also, to help in designating Integrated Food Safety solution at state health departments in partnership with academic institutions to identify and implement best practices in foodborne disease.
The Integrated Food Safety CoE builds capacity in other health departments by developing and providing online and in-person resources, training, and assistance for enteric disease surveillance and outbreak investigations.
Educate students through health safety programme
According to the CDC, about 48 million Americans are sickened by foodborne diseases; 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 dies. Improving food safety, outbreak response, and reducing the ongoing threat of foodborne illness is the focus of the Washington CoE, a joint venture between DOH and the UW School of Public Health.
“Department of Health has demonstrated excellence in the identification and investigation of foodborne illness and outbreaks. Together with expertise from our University of Washington academic partners, we will lead a regional effort to improve food safety and decrease foodborne illnesses,” said Scott Lindquist, State Epidemiologist for DOH.
Janet Baseman, Associate Dean for public health practice in the School of Public Health stated on partnership, “The new Washington CoE will serve as an important resource hub for state public health agencies across our region, and provides us the opportunity to support the public health workforce in implementation of best practices in epidemiological and environmental aspects of foodborne outbreaks.”
