The FDA has released a report on food safety risks in supermarket delis. They focused on several factors that raise the risk of contamination, and two stood out. The report is titled “FDA Report on the Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors in Retail Food Store Delis.”
The report is a summary of the agency’s findings from data collected from 2019 to 2022. Risk factors include food preparation practices that can contribute to outbreaks, such as poor or inadequate cooking, poor personal hygiene, and using food from unsafe sources.
Delis mostly serve foods that are ready to eat, which means that is no kill step performed by the deli or the consumer to serve as a final check on pathogens. The delis that were studied range all across the country. There were 78,919 retail food service establishments in the country during the study.
The two most common risk factors were improper holding times and poor personal hygiene. In other words, foods were held at unsafe temperatures for too long, which can increase the risk of bacterial growth, and employees did not wash their hands thoroughly enough before working with the food or used their bare hands on the food. The delis did score well on adequate cooking.
The study also found that delis with a Certified Food Protection Manager (CFPM) in charge had a much better food safety management system scores than the delis that did not employ a person with those credentials.
The report stated, “These delis are unique in that they must reside in a retail food store (grocery store) and may have multiple regulatory authorities, whereas stand-alone delis are regulated solely by the U.S.Department of Agriculture.”
This data will be used to evaluate trends in risk factors and help the agency identify where interventions may be needed to protect public health. The information will also be used to help shape the next data collection which is scheduled to begin next month.
