# EH20-001 - Strengthening Foodborne Illness Surveillance and Response Capabilities in Harris County Using an Innovative System-Based Approach

> **NIH ALLCDC U01** · HARRIS COUNTY · 2024 · $192,587

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
The Environmental Public Health Division residing within Harris County Public Health, is
responsible for regulating approximately 9,000 food establishments, conducting over 18,000
inspections in 2019, and serving 2.3 million people in Harris County, Texas. The division
continuously strives to maintain a robust food safety program and implement innovative
solutions to reduce foodborne illness.
As a currently funded partner of the Environmental Health Specialists Network, if funded for a
new cycle we intend to use grant funds to continue efforts toward reducing foodborne illness in
Harris County, Texas and the US. Our long-term goal is to reduce foodborne illness and
strengthen surveillance and response capabilities in Harris County, Texas and the US. The
overall objective pursuant to our long-term goal, is the use of a systems-based approach to
enhancement of the multiple interconnected areas of our foodborne illness and outbreak
program concurrently ensuring that it will maximally benefit from an increase in foodborne
illness complaints.
The specific aims are: 1) Evaluate the barriers that interfere with foodborne illness reporting in
Harris County, Texas; 2) Implement and evaluate a new media campaign designed to increase
and improve reporting mechanisms; 3) Create a new procedure to utilize for all foodborne
illness complaints and outbreak investigations with an emphasis on foodborne illness risk factor
control education in implicated food establishments; and 4) Implement a new sampling strategy
that focuses on environmental and food samples when investigating foodborne illness. In
addition, Harris County Public Health remains committed to assisting with all multi-site studies
undertaken by the EHS-Net collaborative.
The systems-based approach in this proposal is significant because it attempts to improve upon
multiple systems that affect foodborne illness detection, response, and prevention in one
cohesive project. While systems theory is not new to the field of food safety, we believe there is
potential to add to the current literature and examples demonstrating how a systems theory
approach can be helpful in conceptualizing how to enhance food safety programs holistically for
health departments nationwide.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10891331
- **Project number:** 5U01EH001361-05
- **Recipient organization:** HARRIS COUNTY
- **Principal Investigator:** JoAnn Monroy
- **Activity code:** U01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** ALLCDC
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $192,587
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-30 → 2025-09-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10891331

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10891331, EH20-001 - Strengthening Foodborne Illness Surveillance and Response Capabilities in Harris County Using an Innovative System-Based Approach (5U01EH001361-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10891331. Licensed CC0.

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