Codex Publishes Guidance on Managing Microbiological Foodborne Illness Outbreaks
The Codex Alimentarius Committee on Food Hygiene (CCFH) has released an amended proposed draft guidance on the management of foodborne illness outbreaks associated with microbiological hazards. Work on the new draft guidelines began in November 2017 at the 49th Session of CCFH.
The draft guidance is intended to advise food safety authorities on the preparedness and management of foodborne illness outbreaks of microbiological origin, including on communication with international networks like the International Food Safety Authorities Network (INFOSAN) and notification to the World Health Authority (WHO) under the International Health Regulations (IHR) when necessary. The guidance addresses incident preparedness, detection, and response to limit the extent of outbreaks as much as possible. The guidance recommendations on the appropriate use of new analytical technologies, such as genetic typing methods (e.g., whole genome sequencing [WGS], multiple-locus variable number of tandem repeat analysis [MLVA], and multi-locus sequence typing [MLST]), during an outbreak investigation.