FSIS to Launch Public Health Information System

WASHINGTONUSDAs Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is launching the Public Health Information System (PHIS), a dynamic data analytics system that will significantly improve the way FSIS detects and responds to foodborne hazards.

The web-based application has four componentsdomestic inspection, import activities, export activities and predictive analyticsand will replace many of FSIS' existing systems, such as the Performance Based Inspection System (PBIS) and the Automated Import Information System (AIIS).

This public health-based approach is in line with the core food-safety principles of the President's Food Safety Working Group to guide the development of a modern, coordinated food-safety system by preventing harm to consumers, using good data and analysis for effective food-safety inspections and enforcements and identifying and quickly stopping outbreaks of foodborne illness.

PHIS will empower FSIS with the tools to stay ahead of food-safety threats by more rapidly and accurately identifying emerging trends, patterns and anomalies in data. The tool will enable FSIS to protect public health more efficiently, effectively and rapidly than previous data systems.

PHIS will transform the agencys ability to utilize data to inform all aspects of domestic inspection, import activities and export activities. It will allow FSIS to collect and analyze information about domestic and international food safety systems producing FSIS-regulated products, so FSIS can identify food-safety risks before they result in outbreaks or recalls, detecting problems before they reach consumers.

Using multiple FSIS data sources, PHIS will allow analysts to identify trends that will automatically adjust domestic and import inspections and sampling, such as the relationship between Salmonella test results and inspection findings, notifying field and headquarters personnel about potential public health threats.

PHIS will support automated decision criteria for consistent scheduling of inspection and sampling activities. Through the system, FSIS will provide inspection personnel the frequencies with which to perform verification tasks and the relative priorities of those tasks. However, the system will allow inspection personnel to manage their own inspection calendars based on their knowledge of establishments' operations and their own workloads. FSIS will be able to monitor establishment data on a daily basis and to send built-in alerts when anomalies in the data are detected. For example, PHIS will send alerts when a large number of incomplete inspection activities or high rates of noncompliance are observed in an establishment. PHIS also will prompt inspection personnel when a routine verification of an establishment's hazard analysis and supporting documentation is necessary.

PHIS will streamline the export program by converting it from a paper-based system to an automated one that covers all functions of the system, including establishment applications for approval for export, applications for export certificates and the issuance of export certificates. The system will enable an automated edit-check capability to ensure that certificates properly reflect a foreign country's import requirements.

The new system will allow FSIS to systematically verify the effectiveness of foreign food-safety systems. It also will enable the advance receipt and verification of electronic foreign health certificates associated with arriving foreign shipments certified by a foreign government. Processes for auditing inspection programs of foreign countries exporting meat, poultry and processed egg products to the United States also will be automated.

To enable greater exchange of information between FSIS and other federal agencies involved in tracking cross-border movement of import and export shipments of meat, poultry and processed egg products, PHIS will establish an electronic interface with U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), once ACE is compatible.

Click here for more information about PHIS.