1.This Act may be cited as
the Food Safety Rapid Response
Act
.
2.Enhanced
foodborne illness surveillance
(a)
(1)The
Secretary of Health and Human Services (referred to in this Act as the
Secretary
) shall strengthen and expand foodborne illness
surveillance systems to—
(A)inform and
evaluate efforts to prevent foodborne illness; and
(B)enhance the
identification and investigation of, and response to, foodborne illness
outbreaks.
(2)Foodborne
illness outbreakFor purposes of this section, the term
foodborne illness outbreak means the occurrence of cases of human
illness caused by a specific pathogen with matching subtype characteristics
which are—
(A)found in 2 or
more States; and
(B)temporally and
geographically distributed in a manner to suggest contamination of a
commercially distributed food product or ingredient.
(b)Foodborne
illness surveillance systemsThe Secretary, acting through the
Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shall enhance
foodborne illness surveillance systems to improve the collection, analysis,
reporting, and usefulness of data on foodborne illnesses by—
(1)coordinating
foodborne illness surveillance and environmental assessment systems, including
complaint systems, in order to—
(A)produce better
information on illnesses associated with foods, including sources and risk
factors for infections by emerging pathogens; and
(B)facilitate
sharing of data acquisition and findings on a more timely basis—
(i)among
governmental agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Food
Safety and Inspection Service, and State and local agencies;
(ii)with relevant
persons in the food industry; and
(iii)with the
public;
(2)augmenting
foodborne illness surveillance and environmental assessment systems to
improve—
(A)attribution of a
foodborne illness outbreak to a specific food or food ingredient; and
(B)identification
and reporting of contributing factors and environmental antecedents in
foodborne illness outbreak investigations;
(3)developing
improved epidemiological tools and methods for obtaining quality exposure data,
microbiological methods for classifying cases and detecting clusters;
(4)developing
improved environmental assessment tools for obtaining data on contributing
factors and environmental antecedents in foodborne illness outbreaks;
(5)expanding
capacity of foodborne illness surveillance and environmental assessment
systems, including those owned and controlled by persons in industry, for
implementation of fingerprinting strategies for foodborne infectious agents,
including parasites and hepatitis A, in order to increase pathogen discovery
efforts to identify new or rarely documented causes of foodborne
illness;
(6)allowing timely
industry and public access to de-identified, aggregate surveillance
data;
(7)at least
annually, publishing current reports on findings from foodborne illness
surveillance and environmental assessment systems;
(8)exploring
establishment of registries for long-term case follow-up to better characterize
late complications of foodborne illness;
(9)increasing the
participation of public health officials at the Federal, State, and local
levels in national networks of public health and food regulatory agencies and
laboratories to—
(A)share and accept
laboratory analytic and environmental assessment findings; and
(B)identify
foodborne illness outbreaks and attribute such outbreaks to specific foods
through submission of standardized molecular subtypes (also known as
fingerprints
) of foodborne illness pathogens to a centralized
database; and
(10)establishing a
flexible mechanism for rapidly supporting scientific research by academic
centers of excellence, which may include staff representing academic clinical
researchers, food microbiologists, animal and plant disease specialists,
ecologists, and other allied disciplines.
(c)Improving State
surveillance capacityThe Secretary, acting through the Director
of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Commissioner of Food
and Drugs, shall improve capacity for surveillance in the States by—
(1)supporting
outbreak investigations with needed specialty expertise, including
epidemiological, microbiological, and environmental expertise, to assist
identification of underlying common sources and contributing factors;
(2)identifying,
disseminating, and supporting implementation of model practices at the State
and local level for—
(A)facilitating
rapid shipment of clinical isolates from clinical laboratories to State public
health laboratories to avoid delays in testing;
(B)conducting rapid
and standardized interviewing of individuals associated with major enteric
pathogens, including prior to designation of clusters as foodborne illness
outbreaks;
(C)conducting and
evaluating rapid and standardized interviews of healthy control persons;
(D)providing
environmental assessment tools for obtaining data regarding contributing
factors and environmental antecedents during foodborne illness outbreak
investigations; and
(E)sharing
information on a timely basis—
(i)within public
health and food regulatory agencies;
(ii)among such
agencies;
(iii)with the food
industry;
(iv)with healthcare
providers; and
(v)with the
public;
(3)conducting a
systematic review of the barriers to sharing data among the entities described
in paragraph (2)(E);
(4)developing,
regularly updating, and disseminating training curricula on foodborne illness
surveillance investigations, including standard sampling methods and laboratory
procedures and improved environmental assessment procedures;
(5)integrating new
molecular diagnostic tools for parasites into Web-based consultation services
for parasitic infections to accelerate the identification of foodborne
infectious agents;
(6)supporting
research to develop and deploy new subtyping methods for salmonella, E. coli,
campylobacter, and other pathogens, to increase the speed and accuracy of
diagnoses;
(7)determining
minimum core competencies for public health laboratories, and developing
self-evaluation and proficiency-testing tools for such laboratories;
(8)facilitating
regional public health laboratory partnerships to leverage resources, including
equipment and physical space, and increase surge capacity;
(9)providing
technical assistance, which may include the detailing of officers and employees
of the Secretary, to State and local public health and food regulatory
agencies;
(10)partnering with
the Food and Drug Administration to increase communication, coordination, and
integration of foodborne illness surveillance and outbreak investigation
activities; and
(11)developing and
periodically updating response and interview procedures so that such procedures
are standardized and tested.
3.Food safety
centers of excellence
(a)Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultation with the working group
described in subsection (b)(2), shall establish 5 regional Food Safety Centers
of Excellence (referred to in this section as the Centers of
Excellence
) to serve as regional resources for State and local public
health professionals. The Centers of Excellence shall be established at
selected State health departments.
(b)Selection of
the Centers of Excellence
(1)To be eligible to be designated as a Food Safety Center
of Excellence under subsection (a), an entity shall—
(A)be a State health
department;
(B)partner with 1 or
more institutions of higher education that have demonstrated knowledge,
expertise, and meaningful experience with regional or national food production,
processing, and distribution, as well as leadership in the laboratory,
epidemiological, and environmental detection and investigation of foodborne
illness; and
(C)provide to the
Secretary such information, at such time, and in such manner, as the Secretary
may require.
(2)Not later than 180 days
after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish a
diverse working group of experts and stakeholders from Federal, State, and
local food safety and health agencies, the food industry, including food
retailers and food manufacturers, consumer organizations, and academia to make
recommendations to the Secretary regarding designations of the Regional Centers
of Excellence.
(3)Additional
Centers of ExcellenceThe Secretary may designate eligible
entities to be regional Food Safety Centers of Excellence, in addition to the 5
designated under subsection (a).
(c)Under the leadership of the Director of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, each Center of Excellence shall be
based out of a selected State health department, which shall provide assistance
to other regional, State, and local departments of health through activities
that include—
(1)providing resources for interviewing
individuals as part of routine surveillance and outbreak investigations;
(2)providing
analysis of the timeliness and effectiveness of foodborne disease surveillance
and outbreak response activities;
(3)providing training for epidemiological and
environmental investigation of foodborne illness, including suggestions for
streamlining and standardizing the investigation process;
(4)establishing fellowships, stipends, and
scholarships to train future epidemiological and food-safety leaders and to
address critical workforce shortages;
(5)training and coordinating State and local
personnel;
(6)strengthening capacity to participate in
existing or new foodborne illness surveillance and environmental assessment
information systems; and
(7)conducting
research and outreach activities focused on increasing prevention,
communication, and education regarding food safety.
(d)Not later than 2 years after the date of enactment of
this Act, the Secretary shall submit to Congress a report that—
(1)describes the
effectiveness of Centers of Excellence; and
(2)provides
legislative recommendations or describes additional resources required by the
Centers of Excellence.
(e)Authorization
of appropriationsThere is
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $20,000,000, which
shall remain available until expended.