The New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Bureau of Community Environmental Health and Food Protection, in partnership with the New York Food Safety Center of Excellence, has released newly streamlined NORS and NEARS field aids designed to make outbreak reporting faster and more efficient for investigators. These tools were created to help reduce unnecessary steps, improve usability in the field, and support quicker, more accurate reporting.
Key Updates Include:
• Separated NORS Fillable Forms: The traditional NORS form has been reorganized into five transmission‑specific versions—food, water, person‑to‑person/indeterminate (combined), animal contact, and environmental contamination unrelated to food or water. Each version retains the required content but removes questions that don’t apply to that transmission mode, shortening completion time.
• Condensed NEARS Field Aids: The NEARS Manager Interview (Part III) and Establishment Observation (Part IV) have been transformed into concise field aids to support rapid completion within the required 24–48 hours after identifying an outbreak in a regulated facility. These aids help investigators collect critical information more efficiently while on‑site.
The partnership’s materials are now available for download on the Integrated Food Safety CoE website.