There is no guarantee that even a responsible business will never have a crisis involving product recalls or foodborne illness investigations. When such a crisis occurs, the economic impact on a business is directly related to the speed, extent and proficiency of the response.

IEH has provided support for all major foodborne outbreaks in the U.S. since 1993.

• Most advanced DNA Fingerprinting analysis available
• Product and patient pattern analysis by staff epidemiologists
• Linkage analysis of pathogen isolates by molecular techniques
• Assessment of implicated product role in recall/outbreak
• Microbial mapping of incriminated facility to ensure safety of process and production
• Analysis of outbreak-related samples (including regulatory split-samples) from the IEH rapid-response mobile laboratory & field investigation unit
• Full range of microbiological and chemical forensic analysis capabilities
• Expert legal assistance with ramifications of recall/outbreak

• Able to design enhanced food safety systems to allow continued operations while problems are addressed
• Rapid deployment of field teams to perform HACCP reassessment
• Laboratory capacity to support enhanced food safety systems
• Coordination of facility communications with local, state and federal (CDC, FSIS, FDA) regulatory agencies
• Coordination of facility response efforts including recall notifications, traceback and customer relations
• Expert analysis and claim investigation from in-house physicians and epidemiologists
• Litigation support