Minnesota’s Exemplary Food Safety Initiatives

Minnesota is one of 20 states (18 funded by an FDA cooperative agreement, Minnesota included, and two with no FDA funding) that participate in the federal RRT program, says Carrie Rigdon, PhD, supervisor of response, training, and outreach for the MDA FFSD. “The RRT program has made great strides in ensuring rapid, consistent, and coordinated investigations and regulatory response to foodborne illness outbreaks and other food safety emergencies,” she mentions.

“Minnesota has a strong network of expertise from government agencies, academia, and industry,” Dr. Rigdon adds. “The MDH has developed the ‘Minnesota Model,’ the gold standard for identification of outbreaks used by states across the U.S.”

Food Safety Partnership

An entity of the MDH and established in 2002, the Food Safety Partnership (FSP) of Minnesota is a consortium of environmental health professionals, industry partners, and other stakeholders working together to protect the public health in the area of food safety.

“The FSP is open to regulators, industry, and the public and we have some 3,652 subscribers to our website,” says Sarah Leach, RS/REHS, planner-principal for the MDH and coordinator of the MDH Food Manager Certification Program. Leach notes that she is not aware of any other states that have such partnerships.

According to Leach, the FSP maintains a steering committee comprised of members from state and local health entities, and industry. The responsibilities of the Steering Committee are to provide an FSP agenda, including committee reports; and information regarding current initiatives, emerging trends, new law and science, and other food-related topics of interest; provide presentations, including an epidemiology report, at each FSP meeting on topics requested by the partnership; serve as liaison to the Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine and the Minnesota Food Safety and Defense Taskforce; and provide leadership, collaboration, and support for initiatives suggested and supported by the membership.

“Minnesota is geographically large,” Leach points out. “We have a large metropolitan area (the Twin Cities), several smaller cities (such as Rochester and Duluth), an extensive resort industry, and numerous rural and agricultural communities. Thus, the FSP provides a forum for diverse stakeholders to work together to advance food safety in our state. In particular, the video-conference and live streaming format of our regular FSP meetings provide opportunities for participation from across the entire state.”

Those regular video-conferences among its food safety professionals make Minnesota stand out, Leach emphasizes. “In Minnesota, staff from more than 30 regulatory agencies license and inspect our 30,000 retail food establishments,” she points out. “A challenge that comes with this diversity is to provide consistent and uniform regulation. Since 2012, MDH Food, Pools, and Lodging Services (FPLS) has convened ‘Regulators’ Breakfast’ video-conference meetings every other month, during which we share announcements, discuss food code interpretations, and network with colleagues. Contributors to meetings frequently include MDH staff, staff from delegated partner agencies, and MDA staff.”

In addition to educational meetings, the FSP publishes a quarterly newsletter that includes a training calendar highlighting upcoming trainings sponsored by the MDH FPLS and also columns called In the News and Bug of the Quarter.

Leach believes the MDH FPLS and the FSP impact Minnesota in a positive way. “We work hard every day to protect, maintain, and improve the health of all Minnesotans by promoting a strong food safety culture,” she emphasizes.

Center for Animal Health and Food Safety

While the Minnesota CoE focuses primarily on detection, rapid investigation, and response, another UMN partnership, the aforementioned CAHFS, looks at the entire food system with an eye for prevention, according to Scott Wells, DVM, PhD, CAHFS director.

“Founded in 2001, CAHFS seeks to improve Minnesota and global animal health, food safety, and public health by building veterinary public health capacity, providing risk assessments and policy summaries, facilitating collaborative research, responding to emerging foreign animal diseases, and delivering relevant outreach,” Dr. Wells says.