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A key objective for the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) is to examine the legal authority needed to conduct ongoing foodborne disease surveillance and respond to foodborne disease outbreaks, and the capacity to implement those legal authorities effectively. This project aimed to create tools that jurisdictions can use to improve their legal preparedness for foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response. This presentation will present the new products: an analysis of state laws, a practitioners’ handbook on legal authorities, and a menu of legal drafting options.
METHODS:
The purpose of this presentation is to identify the types of state and local laws governing foodborne disease outbreak investigations, a framework for understanding legal authorities governing foodborne disease outbreak investigations, and CIFOR resources to locate and understand laws governing foodborne disease outbreak investigations.
RESULTS:
The CIFOR law project has three components:
Analysis of State Legal Authorities describes and analyzes the types of state legal authorities currently available to conduct foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response activities. It demonstrates the “patchwork” of state laws and regulations across an array of topic areas—public health, communicable disease, food safety, food regulation, agriculture, environment, and general governmental authority—that public health professionals and their legal counsel must rely on to accomplish foodborne disease outbreak surveillance and response activities. The document consists of the report and twelve state-specific supplemental tables.
Practitioners Handbook on Legal Authorities is a practical guide for public health professionals who perform key roles in foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response. The handbook acts as a primer on the array of potential legal authorities (e.g., communicable disease laws, food safety laws) that may be used in their jurisdictions. It provides checklists for identifying relevant agency actors and laws within jurisdictions.
Menu of Legal Provisions provides a menu for state public health officials and policymakers to consider when reviewing their jurisdiction’s legal authorities to conduct foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response actions. The menu includes legal provisions relevant to effective performance of each of the principal functions conducted during foodborne disease surveillance and outbreak response and is intended to be a resource to fill gaps and clarify or enhance legal authorities.
CONCLUSIONS:
The principal target audiences for this project include: state and local public health officials who direct foodborne disease surveillance and implement foodborne disease investigations and outbreak response, state and local policymakers who shape and adopt pertinent laws, and legal counsel to those officials.