FDA Announces CORE Food Outbreak Response Team

By Mike Rozembajgier

In an effort to respond more quickly and effectively to food borne illness outbreaks and food safety issues that may demand recall management, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced that it is creating the Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network (CORE). Food industry officials should be aware of this new initiative and take steps to create their own programs in order to prevent food safety outbreaks, manage recall risks, and ensure effective recall management.

According to the FDA, the CORE team will be made up of highly regarded scientists and government officials, including epidemiologists, microbiologists, veterinarians, and public health experts with experience containing the spread of foodborne disease.  The team will be headed by Maine epidemiologist Dr. Kathleen F. Gensheimer, formerly of the Harvard University School of Public Health.

The FDA’s efforts are a positive development. In today’s global marketplace, rapid and effective government response to food-related crises is vital. When the crisis involves a foodborne illness that can spread quickly and affect many, it is even more important for the government to have an efficient and reliable system in place to address the problem by taking steps to identify the source, prevent the spread of the illness, and promptly issue the necessary recall announcements.

In the past, the FDA has been criticized for slow and ineffectual response to food-related disease outbreaks. Some have argued for a consolidated food safety agency. But FDA officials are confident that CORE will address these issues by eliminating interdepartmental overlap and lack of communication.  “Basically, the goal is to build upon the best of what we currently do across FDA in incident response,” said FDA spokesperson Douglas Karas in a recent interview with Food Safety News.  It is a point that is made even more relevant by the food recalls that have been issued in the past few weeks, including the ongoing Listeria outbreak in cantaloupe, which has now become the deadliest food borne disease outbreak in more than a decade.

Officials emphasize that prevention will also be part of the CORE mission. In a statement announcing CORE’s launch, Michael Taylor, the Deputy Commissioner of Foods for the FDA, told the press that “the CORE Network builds on the best practices FDA has already implemented in its outbreak response efforts,” adding , “CORE activities will learn from outbreaks to develop preventive systems in an effort to reduce them.”

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