Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 1/2/12

USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced that in January it will hold a tri-agency meeting with the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advance their understanding of food-source disease attribution to inform food safety strategies.

The public meeting is scheduled for Jan. 31, 2012, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at USDA’s South Building Cafeteria in Washington, D.C.

The meeting also will introduce the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC), which was formed to collaborate on analytic projects, and the IFSAC’s draft strategic plan.

Foodborne illness attribution was selected as the initial focus following CDC’s release of foodborne illness estimates in 2011 and input from stakeholders regarding the need to develop a unified approach to attribution. At the upcoming meeting, the three agencies seek input from stakeholders on existing data and methods for food-source attribution.

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