When two or more individuals who do not occupy the same household consume and become ill from the same meal, it is classified as a Food Borne Illness outbreak. The Environmental Health division of the Vermilion County Health Department conducts and supervises all investigations of food borne illness occurring in Vermilion County, in cooperation with the VCHD Communicable Disease Coordinator.
Investigation begins when those who ate the suspect meal are interviewed, whether they became ill or not. Sanitarians use information about the onset of illness and symptoms to help identify the outbreak's source as bacterial or viral. 72-hour food histories taken from those who got sick are used to help calculate the probable food item that may be the source of the outbreak. In an outbreak involving large numbers of individuals, stool samples are taken for analysis, to identify specific bacteria or virus. Sanitarians inspect establishments found to be the source of food borne illnesses; if just cause is found, they may temporarily revoke the establishment's permit until violations are corrected.

For more detailed information on serving safe foods, visit
Partnership for Food Safety Education

Since 01-01-03, all food service establishments in Vermilion County are required to post their Inspection Scores, along with their permits. Food service establishments will be given letter grades, based on their inspeciotns; "A" for a score of 90-100; "B" for a score of 80-89; "C" for 70-79; a score of less than 70 will result in an automatice closure until violations are corrected.

For questions or information about food borne illness, call 431-2662, or contact the

Environmental Health Director, Douglas Toole, dtoole@vchd.org
Communicable Disease Director, Sherrie Shoemaker, sshoemak@vchd.org
Public Health Administrator, Shirley Hicks, shicks@vchd.org

last updated 7/14/2010

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© Vermilion County Health Department 2001