TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
To learn more about any of our custom consultations and tailored resources, please send an email to tnfood.safetycoe@tn.gov detailing what you are looking for in your jurisdiction.
The TN Food Safety CoE facilitates strategic workshops for state and local health departments using the CIFOR Toolkit. This toolkit is the operational companion to the CIFOR Guidelines for Foodborne Disease Outbreak Response, a comprehensive resource for foodborne disease investigation and control.
This is not a training. It is a process-improvement tool used to review surveillance and investigation workflows, identify gaps, and create a roadmap for sustainable program enhancement.
Why Partner with the TN Food Safety CoE for this Workshop?
The CIFOR Toolkit provides a framework for programs to assess themselves against model practices developed by the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR). By hosting a workshop with the TN CoE, your program benefits from:
Expert Facilitation: Our team guides the conversation, ensuring you stay focused on actionable outcomes while navigating the CIFOR toolkit effectively.
Standardized Assessment: Create a clear benchmark for your program based on model practices and identify exactly where your program is strong and where there is opportunity for improvement.
Targeted Improvements: Our facilitators help your team drill down into the specifics of your surveillance and response workflows to find exactly where changes will have the most impact.
Actionable Results: Your team will walk away with clear, attainable action items and a plan for follow-through.
If your are interest in a CIFOR Toolkit Workshop for your jurisdiction please contact us at TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov.
The Tennessee Food Safety Center of Excellence (TN CoE) provides tailored technical support to strengthen foodborne and enteric disease surveillance, investigation, and outbreak response across our region. Our team collaborates directly with state, regional, and local health departments to deliver targeted assistance based on jurisdiction‑identified needs.
Our technical support activities include:
Tailored consultations such as hands‑on assistance with tools, platforms, and workflows. This may involve optimizing electronic case reporting or laboratory reporting processes, improving data visualization systems, or enhancing genomic and informatics workflows.
Subject matter expertise to address knowledge gaps and build staff capacity. We provide guidance on topics ranging from routine enteric disease investigations to environmental assessments, communication strategies, and cross‑sector collaboration with partners such as agriculture or environmental health.
Outbreak assistance, including just‑in‑time trainings, case investigation support, and collaborative identification of contributing factors and root causes.
A site visit is a one‑on‑one, in‑person or virtual collaboration between a jurisdiction and the Tennessee Food Safety Center of Excellence, typically scheduled for 1.5 days. During these visits, TN CoE subject matter experts provide targeted, tailored support based on needs identified by the requesting health department.
Each site visit’s agenda is customized to the jurisdiction’s priorities and may include interactive discussions, case examples, workflow reviews, tool demonstrations, and peer‑to‑peer problem‑solving. This format allows health departments to receive practical guidance on areas such as surveillance workflows, informatics, environmental health, outbreak documentation, interagency communication, contributing factor identification, and other food safety or enteric disease topics.
By combining structured discussion with collaborative problem‑solving, TN CoE site visits help jurisdictions strengthen local capacity, build staff confidence, improve outbreak response processes, and enhance overall performance in enteric disease detection, investigation, and reporting.
A site visit may lead to a one‑on‑one mentorship as a next step, where Tennessee Department of Health staff provide continued support on topics that require more time or deeper guidance. When a site visit reveals a project or issue that would benefit from ongoing collaboration, our team offers mentorship tailored to the jurisdiction’s evolving needs.
This continued support is shaped by monthly discussions, allowing goals and priorities to adjust as new challenges or opportunities arise. Through this extended partnership, jurisdictions receive practical, sustained assistance that builds workforce capacity and enhances overall outbreak preparedness and response.
The Tennessee Food Safety Center of Excellence Foodborne and Enteric Disease Interview Training equips public health professionals with the knowledge and skills needed to conduct high‑quality interviews that strengthen foodborne illness investigations and protect community health. This training can be completed virtually in two 4‑hour sessions or in person over one full day.
The training goes far beyond learning how to ask interview questions; it systematically walks participants through how interviewing supports each part of the investigation process—from early surveillance and case detection to hypothesis building, outbreak identification, and implementation of control measures.
Epi-Ready, a multi-day training course that utilizes a team-based approach, teaches professionals how to respond to a foodborne illness outbreak efficiently and effectively by understanding the roles and responsibilities of the disciplines involved: epidemiology, laboratory, and environmental health.
The goal of Epi-Ready is to train public health professionals to rapidly identify and investigate a foodborne disease outbreak to allow for swift implementation of control measures to stop the outbreak and prevent future similar outbreaks. The training is designed to follow the Council to Improve Foodborne Outbreak Response (CIFOR) Guidelines.
Attendees have ranged from new hires to staff with more than 30 years of experience working in food safety.
If interested in receiving an Epi-Ready Team Training please contact the us at TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
Are you ready to take training at your agency or in your jurisdiction to the next level? The Tennessee Food Safety CoE offers a one day in-person Train‑the‑Trainer (TtT) Workshop which prepares staff to plan and organize effective training. It also equips participants to deliver and evaluate training confidently. Participants learn how to manage logistics, apply adult‑learning principles, use clear instructional techniques, engage different learning styles, handle difficult participants, and practice co‑training. The workshop includes hands‑on activities and teach‑back exercises to build practical facilitation skills.
If interested in receiving a Train-the-Trainer please contact the us at TNFood.SafetyCoE@tn.gov
The Food Safety core curriculums offer curated collections of training designed to address the epidemiology and environmental health competencies developed by the Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence.
Whether you’re involved with detecting, investigating, or responding to foodborne illness outbreaks at local or state levels, the core curriculums will equip you with the foundational knowledge and skills necessary to integrate you into the field of foodborne and enteric disease investigations.
Access recordings of our 2025 Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) for Cluster Detection and Investigation Live Learning Series.
These sessions introduces epidemiologists to the fundamentals of whole genome sequencing (WGS) for cluster detection and investigation. It covers WGS basics, allele codes, X codes, REP strains, NCBI Pathogen Detection, SEDRIC, data visualization, communication strategies, and PulseNet 2.0 access.
We host the WGS Live Learning Series annually. To receive updates and registration information, sign up for the Food Safety CoE listserv here.
Our REDCap quick-train videos are designed to be taken by those users new to REDCap and cover topics a variety of topics including: creating and disseminating surveys, creating data entry forms, adding users and more!
Wait — there’s more! The Integrated Food Safety Centers of Excellence bring all five centers’ trainings and tools together in one easy‑to‑use place. Explore the Integrated Food Safety CoE website to access over 100 on‑demand trainings and practical tools designed to support every member of your foodborne outbreak response team. Jump in anytime and find exactly what you need, right when you need it.