CIFOR Resources

The Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) is a multidisciplinary collaboration of national associations and local, state and federal agencies representing epidemiology programs, environmental health programs, public health laboratories, and regulatory agencies. CIFOR identifies barriers to rapid detection and response to foodborne disease outbreaks and develops products that address these barriers.

The CIFOR Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response serve as a comprehensive source of information on foodborne disease outbreak investigation and control for state and local health agencies. The Guidelines describe the overall approach to addressing foodborne disease outbreaks, including preparation, detection, investigation, control and follow-up, and the roles of key organizations in foodborne disease outbreaks

To aid in the implementation of the Guidelines, CIFOR created a companion toolkit that contains a series of worksheets and model program activities. The CIFOR Toolkit helps state and local health departments understand the contents of the Guidelines, furthers their ability to conduct self-assessments of their outbreak detection and investigation procedures, and facilitates implementation of appropriate recommendations from the nine chapters in the Guidelines.

Request the 3rd Edition GuidelinesOnline 3rd Edition Toolkit

Since 2006, CIFOR has worked together to improve methods to detect, investigate, control, and prevent foodborne disease outbreaks. The food industry is represented on the CIFOR Industry Workgroup. We are an active, long-standing member of CIFOR.