Client: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition 
Period of Performance: 9/01/07 - 3/18/09 
ERG Project Leader: Alexis Robert, M.C.P.
ERG Task Number: 0193.16.004.001
HHS Project Officer: Dr. Angela Lasher

In September of 2007, the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) contracted with Eastern Research Group, Inc. (ERG) to update its Food Handling Practices Model (FHPM) originally developed by RTI International. The model allows the FDA to estimate the effects of various retail and household practices on the incidence of foodborne illness (FBI).

In addition to the reviewing of the data, the purpose of this update included the following tasks: surveying the literature and collecting data from secondary sources, eliciting experts, and updating the user application.

Instructions For @RISK Users

1. You must have Microsoft Excel and Access and version 4.5 of @RISK on your PC to run the @RISK model.
2. ZIP file contains
   • three Excel workbook files:
     • FHPM.xls (1.06 MB)
     • FHPMGraph.xls (229 KB)
     • FHPMStats.xls (137 KB)
   • one Access database file:
     • BaselineScenarios.mdb (952 KB)
3. Click on FHPM.xls to run the model using the easy-to-use user interface. (For more detailed instructions on how to use the FHPM, please read the original user's guide)

Minimum Software Requirements

The model runs Monte Carlo simulations using MS Excel and Palisade @Risk. The model retrieves data from a database file stored in Microsoft Access. The FHPM requires the following minimum software versions to operate:

• Excel version 2000 or higher
• @RISK version 4.5
• Access version 2000 or higher