Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals Who Detect and Investigate Foodborne Outbreaks

BACKGROUND: The mission of the Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence (CoE) is to improve the detection and investigation of foodborne illness outbreaks by developing education, trainings, and resources for public health professionals. The goal of this project was to develop competencies for practitioners who investigate foodborne outbreaks.

METHODS: We developed a target audience framework and competencies, modeled on existing applied competencies, including the Competencies for Applied Epidemiologists in Governmental Public Health Agencies, developed by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

RESULTS: We identified three relevant dimensions: foodborne outbreak exposure (low, medium, high), foodborne outbreak skill level (foundational, intermediate, advanced), and discipline (epidemiology and environmental health). Using exposure and skill level, we modeled a target audience framework for epidemiologists:

• Tier 1 (low, medium, high exposure and foundational skill level): Recognize foodborne outbreak and participate in outbreak investigation with guidance.
• Tier 2 (medium or high exposure and intermediate skill level): Apply knowledge and experience to conduct foodborne outbreak investigations.
• Tier 3 (high exposure and advanced skill level): Innovate and advance foodborne outbreak response and investigation.

The target audience framework was integrated and piloted in the CO CoE program evaluation plan. The framework was reviewed by stakeholders, including state and local foodborne epidemiologists; CDC and other federal agencies; and academic experts in evaluation. In addition to qualitatively describing target audiences, we plan to create a framework for environmental health professionals and estimate the number of professionals in each tier by discipline.

CONCLUSIONS: This project was the first to describe and create competencies for public health professionals who investigate foodborne outbreaks. This is a crucial step to implementing and evaluating an educational program, and we encourage other organizations involved in food safety education to adopt this framework.