The Rhode Island Department of Health's mission is disease prevention and protection and promotion of thehealth and safety of the people of Rhode Island. As a participant in the Environmental Health SpecialistNetwork (EHS-Net), the Office of Food Protection, the Office of Communicable Diseases, and the Division ofLaboratories will work closely with the Environmental Health Risk Specialist (EHS) to identify risk factors inrestaurants, schools, health care facilities, retail food establishments, etc., that are associated withfoodborne illness. Once the risk factors are identified and their underlying causes are revealed, we will workclosely with our partner agencies to develop an effectivetraining program to be utilized in Rl's FoodManagerCertification Program. Training will also be provided to food inspectors and other agencies, asappropriate,that are involved in food safety. To measure the efficacy of the training program, the Office of FoodProtection and the EHS will conduct a cohort study to examine the association of the improved foodsafetytraining program with the reduction of risk factors associated with foodborne disease. Subsequently, theinformation from the study will be shared with food safety agencies and EHS-Net participants to be used as atool for enhancing their food safetyefforts.We would expect that through the development and implementation of an enhanced food safety trainingprogram, that foodborne disease in the population would be significantly reduced. This is in accordance withthe Rl Department of Health's mission statement of preventing disease and protecting and promoting thehealth and safety of the people of Rhode Island.
