"Foodborne illness or injury results from the natural, accidental, or malicious contamination of foods by biological, chemical, or physical hazards. The impacts of foodborne illness may include morbidity and mortality, increased health care costs, loss of consumer confidence, economic losses, and lost productivity to industry.
The globalization of our food supply has resulted in large volumes of raw and processed products moving across domestic and international boundaries every day. Consequently, foodborne illness outbreaks associated with widely distributed contaminated foods result in human illnesses that cross local, P/T and national boundaries.
Regulatory bodies responsible for human health and food safety respond to these events through the development of enhanced enteric illness surveillance networks, including the use of molecular subtyping and other laboratory technology, to enable cluster detection and the linkage of seemingly unrelated cases to initiate outbreak investigation. Ongoing public awareness of food safety demands the swift resolution of food safety issues at a time when they are becoming increasingly complex, reinforcing the need for collaboration in multi-jurisdictional outbreak investigations and the active participation of all partners in centrally led efforts to mitigate risk and prevent further illness.
A structured approach to managing multi-jurisdictional foodborne illness outbreaks helps to streamline roles and actions, thereby protecting the health of Canadians. The FIORP is the principal framework document that guides multi-jurisdictional collaboration in response to foodborne illness outbreaks in Canada.
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