Food Safety & Nutrition Public health ROI: Foodborne illness network is saving thousands of lives and millions of dollars
March 18, 2016 Kim Krisberg

In another example of the value of investing in public health, a recent study finds that PulseNet, a national foodborne illness outbreak network, prevents about 276,000 illnesses every year, which translates into savings of $507 million in medical costs and lost productivity. That’s a pretty big return on investment for a system that costs just $7.3 million annually to operate.

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Education New York City’s restaurant letter-grading system improved food safety, researchers find
February 17, 2015 Kim Krisberg 1Comment

In 2010, New York City health officials launched a new food safety tactic that assigned restaurants an inspection-based letter grade and required that the grade be posted where passersby could easily see it. So, did this grading make a difference? A new study finds that it has, with the probability of restaurants scoring in the A-range up by 35 percent.

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Environmental Health OSHA issues new whistleblower protections for food industry workers
March 12, 2014 Kim Krisberg 1Comment

When President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law in 2011, it was described as the most sweeping reform of the nation’s food safety laws in nearly a century. Public health advocates hailed the law for shifting regulatory authority from reaction to prevention. What received less attention was a first-of-its-kind provision that protects workers who expose food safety lawbreakers.

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