To keep up with this month's food inspection stories, this column will link you to good sites with background, glossaries, and resources food inspections, food-borne illnesses and other things that will help you cover these important topics and help those of us who made dieting resolutions for New Year's very glad to never eat anything ever again!
The Bad Bug Book http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/-mow/intro.html The handbook on food-borne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins.
Iowa State University Extension: Food Safety Project http://www.exnet.iastate.edu/Pages/families/fs/homepage.html This has got it all. Read Food Safety News daily for story tips and leads and use their list of links to other food safety news sources. Learn how to join the Food Safety Netlistserv for daily updates. Use their excellent compilation of other food safety sites to jump to for background and explainers on different food safety issues.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/list.html A well organized collection of pamphlet type material on all aspects of food safety and handling. Good consumer background and tips as well as technical explanations of some food-borne illnesses and concerns.
USDA/FDA Food-borne Illness Education Information Center: Food Safety Index http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodborne/fbindex/index.htm Get the full-text of the FDA 1997 Food Code and a nice list of listservs to join.
Glossary of Epidemiologic Terms http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/courses/vp350/glossary.html If terms like "Extrinsic incubation period" and "gold standard" and "horizontal transmission" are being thrown at you during the interview, be sure you know what they are referring to by using this glossary.
Check out a couple of the Poynter Institute's Hot News / Hot Research items on food-borne illnesses and outbreaks, researched by David Shedden:
Hong Kong Bird Virus http://www.poynter.org/research/hr/hr_010598.htm
Tainted Strawberries Served in School Lunch Lead to Hepatitis Outbreak http://www.poynter.org/research/hr/hr_040397.htm
Mad Cow Disease http://www.poynter.org/research/hr/hr_032696.htm