An investigation to determine association between foodborne illness and number of citations in a food establishment.

This article analyzes the inspectional data for the food protection program at the Cincinnati Health Department prior to the implementation of a standardization program for food inspections and food inspection training. The main objectives of the authors' study were to assess if current foodborne illness risk factors were associated with different risk classes of food establishments and the relationships between foodborne illness risk factors using non-Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) foodborne illness risk factors and CDC foodborne illness risk factor criteria. Additionally the authors' study provides information on whether the standardization of staff reduced the number of risk factors at food establishments, reducing the opportunity for a foodborne illness. This research compares the mean number of violations cited per inspection at food establishments of various risk classes. The authors' findings show that both CDC and non-CDC foodborne illness risk factors were positively associated to the risk class of the food establishment; however, more non-CDC than CDC foodborne illness risk factors were cited by the sanitarians at each level of risk class.