The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) recently published a study that was conducted in cooperation with the Conference for Food Protection (CFP), titled, “Analysis of Factors Impacting the Implementation of Effective Intervention Strategies.” The results of the study can serve as a foundation for progress toward achieving effective intervention strategies within the retail food industry.
The study assessed local retail food regulatory programs’ risk factor intervention strategies based on Standard 9 of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Voluntary National Retail Food Regulatory Program Standards (Retail Program Standards), which outlines the process a jurisdiction can use to measure the success of its retail food regulatory program in delivering positive food safety outcomes. To conform to Standard 9, jurisdictions must design targeted intervention strategies for food hazards based on a risk factor study, and then continue to evaluate the efficacy of employed intervention strategies by carrying out follow-up risk factor studies once every 60 months.