§ 2224 — Surveillance

(a) In this Act, the term “foodborne illness outbreak” means the occurrence of 2 or more cases of a similar illness resulting from the ingestion of a certain food. (1) The 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— (A) coordinating Federal, State and local foodborne illness surveillance systems, including complaint systems, and increasing participation in national networks of public health and food regulatory agencies and laboratories; (B) facilitating sharing of surveillance information on a more timely basis among governmental agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, and State and local agencies, and with the public; (C) developing improved epidemiological tools for obtaining quality exposure data and microbiological methods for classifying cases; (D) augmenting such systems to improve attribution of a foodborne illness outbreak to a specific food; (E) expanding capacity of such systems, including working toward automatic electronic searches, for implementation of identification practices, including fingerprinting strategies, for foodborne infectious agents, in order to identify new or rarely documented causes of foodborne illness and submit standardized information to a centralized database; (F) allowing timely public access to aggregated, de-identified surveillance data; (G) at least annually, publishing current reports on findings from such systems; (H) establishing a flexible mechanism for rapidly initiating scientific research by academic institutions; (I) integrating foodborne illness surveillance systems and data with other biosurveillance and public health situational awareness capabilities at the Federal, State, and local levels, including by sharing foodborne illness surveillance data with the National Biosurveillance Integration Center; and (J) other activities as determined appropriate by the Secretary. (2) The Secretary shall support and maintain a diverse working group of experts and stakeholders from Federal, State, and local food safety and health agencies, the food and food testing industries, consumer organizations, and academia. Such working group shall provide the Secretary, through at least annual meetings of the working group and an annual public report, advice and recommendations on an ongoing and regular basis regarding the improvement of foodborne illness surveillance and implementation of this section, including advice and recommendations on— (A) the priority needs of regulatory agencies, the food industry, and consumers for information and analysis on foodborne illness and its causes; (B) opportunities to improve the effectiveness of initiatives at the Federal, State, and local levels, including coordination and integration of activities among Federal agencies, and between the Federal, State, and local levels of government; (C) improvement in the timeliness and depth of access by regulatory and health agencies, the food industry, academic researchers, and consumers to foodborne illness aggregated, de-identified surveillance data collected by government agencies at all levels, including data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; (D) key barriers at Federal, State, and local levels to improving foodborne illness surveillance and the utility of such surveillance for preventing foodborne illness; (E) the capabilities needed for establishing automatic electronic searches of surveillance data; and (F) specific actions to reduce barriers to improvement, implement the working group’s recommendations, and achieve the purposes of this section, with measurable objectives and timelines, and identification of resource and staffing needs. (3) fiscal years 2011 through 2015. (1) The Secretary shall develop and implement strategies to leverage and enhance the food safety and defense capacities of State and local agencies in order to achieve the following goals: (A) Improve foodborne illness outbreak response and containment. (B) Accelerate foodborne illness surveillance and outbreak investigation, including rapid shipment of clinical isolates from clinical laboratories to appropriate State laboratories, and conducting more standardized illness outbreak interviews. (C) Strengthen the capacity of State and local agencies to carry out inspections and enforce safety standards. (D) Improve the effectiveness of Federal, State, and local partnerships to coordinate food safety and defense resources and reduce the incidence of foodborne illness. (E) Share information on a timely basis among public health and food regulatory agencies, with the food industry, with health care providers, and with the public. (F) Strengthen the capacity of State and local agencies to achieve the goals described in section 2202 of this title. (2) In developing of the strategies required by paragraph (1), the Secretary shall, not later than 1 year after January 4, 2011, complete a review of State and local capacities, and needs for enhancement, which may include a survey with respect to— (A) staffing levels and expertise available to perform food safety and defense functions; (B) laboratory capacity to support surveillance, outbreak response, inspection, and enforcement activities; (C) information systems to support data management and sharing of food safety and defense information among State and local agencies and with counterparts at the Federal level; and (D) other State and local activities and needs as determined appropriate by the Secretary.