Steps in conducting an Environmental Assessment

Step 1: Planning and preparation

The team plans for the assessment by:

1. reviewing epidemiological information, laboratory results, and food facility information;
2. meeting to identify roles and responsibilities, intended outcomes, and ways the team will communicate during the site visit;
3. determining the need for and purpose of food and environmental sampling to be conducted, and
4. discussing recommended procedures for collecting, holding and transporting samples

Step 2: Site visit

During the site visit, the team will interview management about policies and procedures and interview food workers about how policies and practices are actually implemented. The team walks through the site to understand the physical layout and how it relates to food handling processes. They collect information on food handling processes and any variables that may have had a negative influence on the food safety system at the time of the outbreak. They collect food and environmental samples, focusing on hard-to-clean areas such as slicers and floor drains. The team examines information such as food source records, process monitoring logs, written policies for personal hygiene, facility design diagrams and recipes. Following the site visit, the team develops a hypothesis about the factors involved in the outbreak.

Step 3: Assess information

The team selects the information that is most relevant and credible and analyzes it to test their hypotheses and identify variables that they believe contributed to the outbreak.

Step 4: Identify potential preventive control strategies

These include immediate control strategies, such as making on-site corrections at the facility, stopping distribution of food, and closing the facility. Longer-term control strategies include: implementing preventive controls, training staff, recommending changes in suppliers, validating a heat process, and changing policies related to sick leave or personal hygiene.

Step 5: Complete investigative report

The final report summarizes the investigation and includes factors that may have led to the outbreak, including contributing factors, root causes and identification of potential preventive controls.