The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) is a multidisciplinary collaboration of national associations and federal agencies working together since 2006 to improve methods to detect, investigate, control and prevent foodborne disease outbreaks. Council member representatives include expertise  in epidemiology, environmental health, public health laboratory activities  and food regulation at the local, state and federal levels.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), foodborne illness affects one in six Americans annually. Of the estimated 48 million who get sick from a foodborne illness each year, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.

Many organizations work to reduce foodborne illness. Outbreak identification and investigation is a key area where multidisciplinary public health professionals must collaborate. CIFOR was created to develop and share guidelines, processes, and products that will facilitate effective foodborne outbreak response.

CIFOR is co-chaired by the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO).

Vision

Local, state and federal partners collaborating effectively to reduce the burden of foodborne illness in the United States.

Mission

To improve methods at the local, state, and federal levels to detect, investigate, control, and prevent foodborne disease outbreaks.

By-Laws

CIFOR is composed of four entities: the Council, a Governance Committee, and Development Teams, and Workgroups.

Click here to read the complete CIFOR by-laws.

The CIFOR Council is comprised of food safety public health partners. In addition, CIFOR has four development teams designed to focus on development of CIFOR projects and ensure participation of the larger foodborne outbreak response community. The food industry is represented on the Industry Workgroup.

If you have any questions about the development teams please contact us.