September is Food Safety Month: Strengthen Habits, Prevent Risk

Embracing National Food Safety Month: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever

At Steritech, we see National Food Safety Month as more than an annual observance. It is a strategic moment for executive teams in restaurants, hotels, and foodservice brands to reaffirm their commitment to guest safety, brand trust, and operational excellence. Food safety cannot be seasonal. It must be consistent, embedded, and data-driven every day, everywhere.

Why consistency isn’t optional

Every year, 48 million Americans fall ill from contaminated food. That is one in six people. Of those, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die, and the economic burden exceeds 75 billion dollars annually in medical costs, lost productivity, and other impacts. These are not abstract figures. They reflect real customer risk and real brand consequences.

This year, the oversight landscape has grown more fragile. Federal agencies have faced mass layoffs, including thousands of FDA and CDC food safety professionals, disruptions to critical programs such as lab proficiency testing, limitations on DOJ enforcement of food safety violations, and a sustained inability to meet inspection targets both domestically and abroad. In one stark case, an E. coli outbreak tied to romaine lettuce in late 2024 sickened nearly 90 people and claimed a child’s life, yet regulators did not issue a warning or disclose the grower.

These gaps make it clear that food safety cannot rest on regulators alone. It requires leaders to reinforce internal rigor with technology and trusted third-party expertise to ensure consistent, reliable results.

What Steritech’s data reveals this Food Safety Month

For many years, Steritech has used assessment data from the first seven months of each year to create four vertical-specific infographics that highlight the top 10 food safety challenges within those industries. These infographics have become a staple resource during National Food Safety Month, helping brands understand their most pressing risks and how they compare to industry peers.

This year, we are taking that analysis further. Because Steritech serves multiple, distinct industries, we are in a privileged position to view food safety challenges holistically and identify trends that cut across sectors. When we look through that lens, we see that organizations largely struggle in the same four areas:

• The Unseen Risk: Surface cleanliness and sanitation gaps that are not always visible but carry significant risk.
• Facility Fundamentals: Facilities that are not consistently clean, maintained, and ready for safe operation.
• Processes in Peril: Food handling and storage missteps that undermine otherwise strong procedures.
• People and Oversight: Breakdowns where training meets execution, leading to inconsistent compliance.

By surfacing these shared challenges, Steritech equips leaders with clear priorities for action. Combining this data-driven insight with technology and corrective action planning allows organizations to close critical gaps, strengthen internal rigor, and build more resilient operations.

Taking action during Food Safety Month

National Food Safety Month is an opportunity for executives to do more than raise awareness. It is the right time to conduct self-assessments between third-party audits, reviewing areas such as temperature control, sanitation practices, and corrective action follow-through to uncover hidden vulnerabilities before they become incidents. These check-ins not only highlight risks but also demonstrate a visible commitment to safety from the top down.

It is also a chance to reinforce training and certification so managers and staff understand that safety is part of the brand promise, not just a compliance requirement. Finally, leaders should invest in tools and assessments that provide clear data, benchmark performance across locations, and highlight trends that may otherwise go unnoticed. By focusing on these priorities now, organizations can reduce risk, build stronger accountability, and set the stage for better performance throughout the year.

Why Steritech as a partner matters

At Steritech, we have spent more than 30 years perfecting third-party food safety assessments that serve as both a safeguard and a growth enabler. What sets us apart is our ability to deliver objective insights, calibrated evaluations, and data-backed guidance that helps brands move from compliance to excellence.

• Objectivity: Our assessments eliminate internal blind spots and provide an unbiased view of performance.
• Calibration: Every Steritech assessment is standardized across auditors and regions, giving brands reliable benchmarks and fair comparisons.
• Data analysis: Because we serve many of the world’s leading brands across industries, we can identify trends, uncover correlations, and share best practices that help guide your organization toward consistent wins.

Underlying our work is a simple philosophy: we immerse ourselves in your brand, interact directly with your teams, and deliver insights in a way that informs meaningful improvement. This approach ensures our guidance is not only actionable but aligned with your culture and goals.

By combining that philosophy with the 7 Pillars of Food Safety Excellence and the power of OnBrand360®, Steritech delivers the clarity, consistency, and confidence leaders need to protect their brand and build long-term trust.

Sources:

• Jewett, Christina. Food Safety Jeopardized by Onslaught of Funding and Staff Cuts. The New York Times. March 19, 2025.
• Armour, Stephanie. Silence on E. Coli Outbreak Highlights How Trump Team’s Changes Undermine Food Safety. KFF Health News. May 29, 2025.
• About Food Safety | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last updated April 29, 2024.
• Status of Foodborne Illness in the U.S. | U.S. Government Accountability Office. February 3, 2025.
• FDA Reportedly Reinstating Some Fired Food Safety Scientists. Food Safety Magazine. April 29, 2025.
• Support of the Environmental Health Workforce. National Environmental Health Association. May 10, 2021.
• Factsheet: The Occurrence of Foodborne Illness Risk Factors in Retail Food Store Delis, 2015-2016. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. May 2021.