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The Wasco-Sherman Public Health Department in Oregon deemed the Salmonellosis outbreak as an intentional poisoning of restaurant salad bars in the community of Dalles. Members of the Rajneeshpuram group committed this malicious act. From a public health perspective, the health department followed proper channels of an outbreak investigation through laboratory methods and the appropriate statistical analysis of all data- from the food, employees, and customers/patients, whom met the case definition with onset symptoms. The local and state health department worked in conjunction with the criminal investigation team as well, which is very important when it comes reporting uncommon disease or illness clusters. The epidemiologic practice to an occurrence need not be changed; and the processes of determining the pathogen, vehicle, and route of contamination and relating them to time, places, and person should remain the same (Torok et al., 1997). In order to prevent “terrorism by food” situations in the future, a food defense strategy will utilize sensible and cost-effective channels to reduce the risk of a spiteful contamination. Prevention measures will entail secure video footage to monitor food delivery, food preparation and the food consumption, along with two extensive trainings for employees. One will be to detect and report signs of food meddling and the other will be an employee health safety and precaution on how to safely use cleaning materials, disposal of any chemical hazards and performing proper hygiene. An additional measure would entail a staffing order when it comes to meetings, clean employee attire, identification (i.e. ID badges), and proper vetting, such as criminal background checks.

A food defense program is a justifiable recommendation to all entities handling foods and beverages because it addresses all aspects of an operational system from security, personnel and the physical products (i.e. food, drinks, etc.). It’s imperative for all businesses serving food and beverages to have a viable food defense plan that meets applicable standards to protect the consumers and the employees, and the facility’s integrity. The Nevada Food Safety Task Force (NFSTF), put in place by the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health (DPBH), which does adhere to the United States Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) standards, regulates all food establishments and the administration of interventional practices, such as a food defense plan. These same agencies, including local health departments, such as the Southern Nevada Health District in Southern Nevada, also monitors the success of all strategies and programs; therefore, they would assess the food defense recommendation by making visits to perform evaluations. Evaluations of an establishment’s whole system and their measures, such as checking on licensing, making sure trainings are up-to-date and auditing the food defenses procedures and practices of all staffing. Additionally, ratings should be distributed in order to challenge all food and beverage companies to strive for 100% satisfaction of food defense adherence- ratings will be available to the public for their own knowledge and well-being, which will retract or retain business. Furthermore, there could even be an incentive program implemented to encourage continuous improvement and devotion to healthier communities by means of protection and the fight against “terrorism by food.”

Reference

Török, T. J., Tauxe, R., Wise, R., Livengood, J., Sokolow, R., Mauvais, S., Birkness, K.

(1997). A Large Community Outbreak of Salmonellosis Caused by Intentional

Contamination of Restaurant Salad Bars. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 278(5), 389. doi:10.1001/jama.1997.03550050051033