Two recent studies have provided insight into restaurant inspection practices that may reduce the occurrence of foodborne illness outbreaks. The studies, which were funded through a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Environmental Health Association (NEHA), found that posting health department restaurant inspection scores at restaurants and using letter grades for restaurant inspection results are linked with fewer foodborne illness outbreaks.
The first study involved a survey of health departments about their inspection practices. Then, in the second study, the survey data was compared against data from the national Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) to assess the reproducibility of the survey results.