Foodborne illness outbreaks at restaurants linked to sick workers
Sick employees are major contributors to the spread of foodborne illnesses at restaurants and other food establishments, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
From 2017 to 2019, the report found, around 40% of foodborne illness outbreaks with known causes were at least partly associated with food contamination by a sick or infectious worker. Norovirus, a stomach bug that causes vomiting and diarrhea, was the most common pathogen involved in foodborne illness outbreaks at U.S. restaurants during the years studied, according to the report. It accounted for 47% of the 800 outbreaks that the CDC identified. Salmonella — a bacteria that causes diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps — accounted for nearly 19%.
The report recommended that restaurants develop and enforce policies that require sick workers to notify their manager if they have symptoms and to stay home if they’re ill, NBC New wrote.
“Ill workers continue to play a substantial role in retail food establishment outbreaks, and comprehensive ill worker policies will likely be necessary to mitigate this public health problem,” the report’s authors wrote.
While most restaurants have at least some guidelines for sick workers, the CDC found that the policies are often incomplete.
Around 92% of the managers the CDC interviewed said their establishment had a policy requiring food workers to report symptoms if they feel sick, but just 66% said those policies were written. And just 23% said their restaurant’s policy listed all five of the symptoms that guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration suggest warrant notifying a manager: vomiting, diarrhea, jaundice, sore throat with fever or a lesion with pus.