The Centers for Disease Control examined a host of foodborne illness outbreaks that traced back to restaurants from 2017 to 2019 and found a common thread in many cases: sick workers.
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Out of 800 foodborne illness outbreaks analyzed, four in ten, with an identifiable cause, were linked to sick workers.
Dr. Laura Brown, the lead scientist at the CDC Safe Food Section, tells KNX News most restaurants did not seem prepared to address sick workers.
"Restaurant owners and managers are in a really good position to prevent sick workers from working... It's important for them to develop and enforce [policies]... then ensure that those workers stay home and not work with food."
Of the locations studied, Dr. Brown and her team found that a majority of the restaurants that had outbreaks, did not have a comprehensive sick worker policy - some having no policy at all.
Dr. Brown offered suggestions for managers and operators to better protect against outbreaks, saying a critical component to being successful is to have "policies that everybody knows, they're specific, and they're written down so that managers know what to do and workers know what to do when there's a sick worker."
The ultra-contagious norovirus was the most common outbreak tied to restaurants.
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