Dr. Mark Moorman, Director of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Office of Food Safety, and Stephen Hughes (Prevention Coordinator) published a post on the FDA Voices blog on October 13, 2022 discussing a new series designed to share the latest information on strategies for preventing future foodborne illnesses.

FDA’s new series of Prevention Strategies to Enhance Food Safety is developed from investigations of foodborne disease outbreaks.  For food-hazard pairings where emerging patterns can be identified and targeted, FDA will release strategies that contain recommendations for the prevention of future foodborne illness.  These strategies take from the lessons learned from larger initiatives like the Leafy Green STEC Action Plan, while establishing a scalable approach that can be utilized more frequently.  FDA has thus far released two Prevention Strategy documents:

• Imported Enoki and Imported Wood Ear Mushroom Strategy Document (September 26, 2022) targets Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella contamination of imported specialty mushrooms and, among other information, includes:

  • Recommendations for further research; and

  • Increased sampling at U.S. ports and retail operations.

• Bulb Onion Strategy Document (September 26, 2022) targets Salmonella contamination of bulb onions and includes:

  • Recommendations for further research;

  • Prioritized inspections of farms in the U.S. and Mexico;

  • Increased sampling of onions from the State of Chihuahua, Mexico;

  • Support for industry-led efforts to develop and implement best practices for bulb onion production; and

  • Prioritized Foreign Supplier Verification Program inspections of bulb onion importers.

FDA experts will be interviewed about foodborne illness prevention strategies on Food Safety Magazine’s Food Safety Matters podcast to be released October 18, 2022.