Canada’s Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response Protocol (FIORP) 2010: To guide a multi-jurisdictional respons

Figure 1
How the FIORP Operates

Figure 1 represents the general operating procedures for coordinating the response to a potential multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak.

The procedure would typically begin with the notification of the partners to identify an issue with the potential to become a multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak.
A potential multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak may come to the attention of public health or food regulatory agencies through: notifications from partners; reports of human illness (surveillance); a routine inspection that reveals a potential for human illness; or a food safety investigation.

Once a potential multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak has been identified, there is a requirement to examine the current available information and determine if it is sufficient to indicate the presence of a potential multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak that requires a collaborative investigation and the activation of an Outbreak Investigation Coordinating Committee (OICC).

A teleconference call will be held among affected partners (those with cases of human illness or having relevant food-borne hazard information) to review the available information and assess whether or not an OICC is required.

If the initial assessment and review of available information indicates that an OICC should be activated, the FIORP duty officers will be notified by the OICC lead and asked to inform their senior officials. The OICC lead will initiate a teleconference call with the affected partners’ identified representatives to activate the OICC and begin the coordination of the investigation.

The composition of and collaboration with an OICC involves stakeholders such as provincial/territorial officials, local/regional officials, Health Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and law enforcement (if required).   The composition of the OICC will depend on the nature of the outbreak and may evolve as knowledge related to the source of the outbreak is generated during the outbreak. At varying times, it should have representatives that provide epidemiological, food safety, laboratory, and communication expertise from the different levels of government required.

OICC collaboration includes:

• coordinated investigations, including epidemiological, food safety, and laboratory investigations;
• integrated analysis;
• risk assessment;
• public health and food safety actions;
• communication with the public;
• outbreak conclusion;
• outbreak debrief/review.

Most multi-jurisdictional food-borne illness outbreak investigations do not require the use of an incident command system (ICS) and activation of emergency operations centres (EOCs). However, agencies may consider using such an approach for some public health emergencies, including food-borne illness outbreaks, to help coordinate the response.

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