Key Findings from Investigation Data

Key findings

Restaurant practices can contribute to outbreaks. We found these top factors contributed to outbreaks in restaurants and other retail food establishments: contaminated ingredients, sick food workers handling food, and food left out of safe temperature control.

Restaurant managers are key to preventing outbreaks in restaurants. We found most outbreaks happen because restaurants do not build a strong food safety culture, train their employees properly, and monitor their work.

Summaries

Restaurant Investigations, 2014–2016

Learn about outbreaks and gaps we found in retail food safety practices and outbreak investigations.

Outbreak Data on Contributing Factors

Find out when contributing factors were more likely to be identified for nearly 300 outbreaks.

Traits of Successful Investigations

Learn about what helps make foodborne outbreak investigations successful more often.

Issues Affecting Use of Environmental Assessments

Learn why health department investigators do and do not do environmental assessments of outbreaks.

Common Issues When Investigating Outbreaks

Learn how environmental health specialists investigate outbreaks.