The Cornell-New York center will be co-directed by Martin Wiedmann the Gellert Family Professor in food safety, Andie Newman and Shelley Zansky of the state health department.

“The major issue these centers try to address is making sure that, at the state level, there’s appropriate expertise to detect foodborne disease outbreaks, trace them back to the source, and then use that information to prevent future outbreaks,” says Wiedmann.

The benefit of state health departments working with large universities like Cornell is that they can take advantage of the institution’s research, educational and technical expertise.

“Together with Cornell University, the department is going to lead this regional effort to improve food safety and reduce the threat we face from foodborne illnesses,” says Howard Zucker, state health commissioner. “By pooling our resources and talents, we’ll be better equipped to take on the challenges that occur in an outbreak and be better able to prevent foodborne illnesses altogether.”

Cornell is expected to train local health officials on how to implement cutting-edge food safety tools, some of which are fairly new to the market. They will also be looking at how genome sequencing can detect a foodborne outbreak even in the smallest sample of victims.

The IFSCE is the CDC’s response to the establishment of the Food Safety Modernization Act.

Sign up for Food Safety Magazine’s bi-weekly emails!