Health News:

• Driving a car while sick with COVID was the equivalent of driving drunk - with a 25% increase in crash risk. (Axios)
• USDA withdrew a plan to limit Salmonella levels in raw poultry. (AP)
• The FDA is investigating two separate Salmonella Enteritidis cases, with 50 and 22 cases respectively, and no known link to specific products yet. (FDA)
• Reunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean, has over 35,000 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne disease chikungunya, including seven deaths. Real numbers may be close to 100k cases. (RFI)
• California, in partnership with the CDC, is offering $25 gift cards for people who live near farms to get tested for bird flu or vaccinated with the seasonal flu shot. (CBS)
• A hospital in the U.K. had to prohibit most visitors after a major norovirus outbreak. (York Press)
• A toxin made by certain E. coli bacteria may be responsible for the rise in colon cancer among young patients. (NPR)
• Novavax’s COVID shot is on track for full approval after a delay, the company says. (AP)
• Concerned about vaccine misinformation and access, CIDRAP launched the Vaccine Integrity Project, funded by Walmart heiress Chrissy Walton, to ensure that vaccine recommendations remain evidence-based. (CNN, CIDRAP)
  

Measles News:

• Measles may be endemic again within 25 years if vaccine uptake stays low. (Reuters)
• More Americans have heard false rumors about measles vaccines or treatments this year than ever before, but confidence in the MMR vaccine is actually still quite high. (KFF Health News)
• A middle-schooler in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is the first measles case in a major urban area of Texas during this outbreak. (CBS)
• Illinois has its first measles cases this year. (Capitol News)
  

Best Questions:

Can I use my dishwasher to wash and sanitize all my kitchenware etc. during an outbreak?

Short answer: Not really. Dishwashers are great at cleaning, but they’re not approved for sanitizing in certain outbreak scenarios.

Even if your dishwasher has a "sanitize" cycle—or a sanitizer dispenser—it doesn’t necessarily meet the requirements laid out in the U.S. Food Code for proper sanitizing. That’s because true sanitizing requires holding a specific temperature for a specific amount of time or using an approved chemical at the right concentration. Many dishwashers don’t consistently do either, even some of the high-end commercial ones.

So during an outbreak (norovirus, Salmonella, you name it), you can still use your dishwasher to clean—but you may need to follow up with a separate sanitizing step if your protocol calls for it, or if you don’t have a way of tracking the time and temperature inside your dishwasher. That might mean soaking in a sanitizing solution, running items through a three-compartment sink, or using an approved chemical sanitizer for surfaces and utensils.

Sources: FDA Food Code, Ecolab

How will food safety workforce shortages and layoffs affect restaurants?

The FDA recently confirmed that it’s scaling back routine food safety inspections due to staffing shortages and budget constraints. That includes fewer checks on food processors, imports, and manufacturers—key parts of the supply chain that restaurants rely on. While high-risk facilities will still be prioritized, a broad slowdown means more potential for contaminated products to slip through undetected.

For restaurants, this shift means more risk management is falling on your plate. With fewer government guardrails, it's essential to vet suppliers more carefully and ensure internal food safety training is rock solid. And this isn't just a temporary dip—industry experts say food safety workforce shortages are a long-term challenge. Local health departments are also feeling the pinch, with billions in funding recalled and widespread staffing cuts, so your own health inspections may be fewer and farther between. When government oversight weakens, accountability shifts closer to home.

For risk and operations leaders, this may be the time to double down on training and internal audits. Don’t wait for an outbreak or customer complaint to find out your food safety systems have slipped. ZHH can help support, with everything from tabletop exercises to walk through what to do in a crisis to resources for shoring up your food safety processes before your next big incident. Don’t hesitate to reach out.

Sources: Food Safety, CBS, WBUR

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Best Read:

For those of you with a bit of extra time on your hands this weekend, we found the results of the KFF poll on the public’s views on measles outbreaks to be fascinating. It gets into the nitty gritty, but it’s really interesting stuff:

KFF Tracking Poll on Health Information and Trust: The Public’s Views on Measles Outbreaks and Misinformation

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