The FDA has released its report on food poisoning risk factors in fast food and food service restaurants. The report covers the years from 2017 t0 2018. Risk factors that can contribute to outbreaks of foodborne illness include inadequate cooking, poor personal hygiene, and using food from unsafe sources. This study is part of a ten-year study that spans the years 2013 to 2024.
The restaurants used in the study were located across the country and were randomly selected by the FDA Retail Food Specialists.
The key objectives of the study were to identify the occurrence of risk factors, the prevalence of food safety management systems, the prevalence of certified food protection managers, and prevalence of employee health policies. That last risk factor is important because the CDC found that 40% of outbreaks are caused by sick restaurant employees.
The study found that inadequate cooking as the least risky factor, and the two most common risk factors were improper holding time and temperature, and personal hygiene.
The most important finding is that a well developed and documented Food Safety Management System can help reduce these risk factors. In fact, restaurants that had a well developed system had less than half as many risk factors and food safety practices that were out of compliance than restaurants that did not have a system.
Restaurants had the best control over inadequate cooking. Ensuring no bare hand contact with ready to eat foods and cooking raw animal derived foods to required temperature were also well controlled.
The food safety practices that needed the most improvement were cold holding of foods requiring refrigeration, employee handwashing, and not cooling foods properly, so they spend too much time in the danger zone of 40°F to 140°F.
This study will inform the FDA and restaurants about targeted intervention strategies focused on controlling these risk factors, and will provide technical assistance to state, local, tribal, and territorial regulatory professionals.
