Working Group Activities for FY 2019

During its eighth year, the FSMA SWG met twice, in December 2018 and May 2019 at CDC in Atlanta, to consider several recent and ongoing developments in foodborne illness surveillance that are key to maintaining and improving surveillance systems. The December 2018 Working Group meeting focused on responding to specific questions on CDC foodborne illness surveillance data systems and strategies, IFSAC activities and analytic approaches, and recent significant produce outbreaks. The May 2019 meeting focused on a review and discussion of two major topic areas: the challenges and opportunities of WGS for illness detection and response, and water as a food safety program. FSMA SWG leadership reported the working group’s activities and findings to the BSC/DDID at its meetings, also in December 2018 and May 2019, for discussion, for approval of the annual report, and to make recommendations to CDC and to the HHS Secretary. These topics and Working Group discussions are summarized below. Previous annual reports are posted on the BSC/DDID FSMA SWG website.