The Risk Assessment of Norovirus Transmission in Food Establishments: Evaluating the Impact of Intervention Strategies and Food Employee Behavior evaluates the dynamics of norovirus transmission from ill or infected food employees in food establishments (restaurant setting) to ready-to-eat food and consumers during food preparation and also evaluates the impact of prevention strategies. A discrete event model was developed to study norovirus transmission from the soiled hands of ill or infected food employees and the impact of prevention strategies and their compliance on the prevalence of contaminated servings and the number of resulting infected customers.

This risk assessment is available via open access, ahead of print, in the Journal of Risk Analysis: An International Journal.

Download a Fact Sheet on the assessment. (PDF: 438 KB)

The objectives of this risk assessment were to:

• Evaluate the dynamics of norovirus transmission from ill or infected food employees to ready-to-eat food and consumers.
• Evaluate the impact of prevention strategies and their level of compliance on the prevalence of contaminated food servings and the number resulting infected consumers.
• Provide a basis for evaluation of potential changes regarding Employee Health for the 2017 FDA Food Code.

For more information on FDA Food Code recommended intervention strategies for preventing norovirus, see Retail Food Protection.