The Food Safety & Environmental Services Program has finalized and posted the 2015 Food Safety Annual Report. The report summarizes the delegated inspections and activities that were completed by Arizona State University and the county health departments over Fiscal Year 2015.

Here are some highlights and new additions to this year’s report:

• Complex, moderate, and limited food establishments across the state received an average of 1.8, 1.5, and 1.7 inspections in Fiscal Year 2015, respectively
• ADHS supported county investigation of 21 foodborne outbreaks, including two high profile multistate outbreaks. The first was the Listeria outbreak linked to commercially produced, prepackaged caramel apples, and the second was the outbreak of Salmonella Paratyphi B and Salmonella Weltevreden infections linked to frozen raw tuna
• There were 1,095 foodborne illness complaints received by county health departments and ADHS. This represents an increase of 38% from last year
• The Arizona Foodborne Illness Progress Report indicates that while infections from Shigellaand E. coli are decreasing, infections from Salmonella and Campylobacter continue to increase in Arizona

A new section featuring each county environmental health department and Arizona State University is provided in Appendix E. Each county profile includes a program summary and accomplishments, number of sanitarians and sanitarian-aides, and the number of permits for various permit categories.

We want to give a big thanks to Arizona State University the Arizona local health departments, and the public health professionals that work within these agencies, for all their work towards preventing illness and protecting the health of Arizonans.