Collaborative Food Safety Forum

Identifying ways to better prevent and respond to foodborne illness

Each year, an estimated forty-eight million people in the United States experience a foodborne illness. Foodborne illnesses cause 128,000 hospitalizations and about 3,000 deaths in the United States annually. The 2011 FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) introduced sweeping reform of food safety regulation in the U.S. Its intent was to “shift the focus from responding to contamination to preventing it.” Following its passage, RESOLVE, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation established the Collaborative Food Safety Forum (CFSF or Forum), a platform for cross-sector information exchange and the development of policy solutions to better prevent and respond to foodborne illness. The Forum engages stakeholders in implementation of the law, including rulemaking that achieved the public health improvements and prevention at the heart of FSMA.

RESOLVE designed, managed, and facilitated the CFSF for more than six years, which included outreach to determine priority issues and protocols, engaging key stakeholders, designing collaborative sessions based on stakeholder input, and facilitating sessions that allowed for effective dialogue among corporate, nongovernmental organization, and agency stakeholders.

The Forum met over thirty times and collaboratively developed tools, including Principles of Successful FSMA Implementation and the Supply Chain Consultation Process. Overall, the CFSF contributed significantly to building cooperation among key stakeholders actively engaged in implementing and overseeing food safety systems. It increased and aligned understanding of FSMA and what was needed to fine-tune, problem-solve, and ultimately increase uptake of requirements and fulfill the law.