The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Environmental Health, (NCEH CDC) has released a report on factors that cause or amplify foodborne illness outbreaks (contributing factors). Information on contributing factors is critical to preventing outbreaks making this a highly valuable resource for local and state food safety professionals. The findings from analyses data submitted to the National Environmental Assessment Reporting System (NEARS) suggest that contributing factor identification is influenced by multiple outbreak characteristics, and that timely and comprehensive environmental assessments are important to contributing factor identification. The report also highlights the need for strong environmental health and food safety programs that have the capacity to complete such environmental assessments during outbreak investigations. Click here to access the full report and learn more.