September 2010 

Food Safety and Inspection Service’s 

Public Health Information System 

The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public 

health regulatory agency responsible for ensuring that domestic and imported meat, poultry and processed egg 

products are safe, wholesome and correctly labeled and packaged. 

FSIS is launching a dynamic data analytics system called the Public Health Information System (PHIS), 

developed as part of our effort to collect, consolidate and analyze data. PHIS is a user-friendly, web-based 

application that will replace many of FSIS’ existing systems, such as the Performance Based Inspection System 

(PBIS) and the Automated Import Information System (AIIS). It will integrate and automate our paper-based 

business processes—often found to be inefficient, time-consuming and limiting—into one comprehensive and 

fully automated data-driven inspection system. PHIS will significantly improve the way FSIS detects and 

responds to foodborne hazards. Individuals using PHIS will not need highly advanced computer skills—only 

basics of web browsing. If you have ever “surfed” the Internet, then you already have the computer skills you 

will need. 

PHIS has four components: domestic inspection, import activities, export activities and predictive analytics. 

This public health-based approach is in line with the core food safety principles of the President’s Food Safety 

Working Group to guide the development of a modern, coordinated food safety system by preventing harm to 

consumers, using good data and analysis for effective food safety inspections and enforcements and identifying 

and quickly stopping outbreaks of foodborne illness. 

New Approach to Public Health 

PHIS will empower FSIS with the tools to stay ahead of food safety threats by more rapidly and accurately 

identifying emerging trends, patterns and anomalies in data. This powerful decision-making tool will enable 

FSIS to protect public health more efficiently, effectively and rapidly than under previous data systems. 

This easy-to-use, web-based system will integrate our data sources to support a comprehensive, timely and 

reliable data-driven approach to FSIS inspection, auditing and scheduling. Through improved data quality, more 

consistent reporting, enhanced management controls and efficient, effective use of FSIS data, PHIS will enable 

FSIS to respond more quickly when threats are realized. 

This will make FSIS and its employees more accountable and will make better use of inspection personnel’s

time while in FSIS-regulated establishments every day. The system will allow FSIS to coordinate effectively 

within FSIS and with our stakeholders and other agencies, improving investigations and contaminant tracing. 

As the system is further developed, it will facilitate sharing of data among inspection personnel, their managers 

and headquarters on a daily basis, giving FSIS decisionmakers a better picture of what is happening across the 

country, as it is happening. It will remove the time lag for this kind of communication that previously occurred 

Food Safety 

and Inspection

Service Backgrounder Public Health 

Information 

System
2

over days or even weeks. Along with the training FSIS personnel will receive, PHIS will better equip them with 

the necessary information to identify deficiencies in an establishment’s process controls and to anticipate 

developing problems—preventing adulterated products from entering commerce. The system also is a learning 

tool that will provide inspection personnel with helpful links to relevant guidance materials such as regulations, 

notices and directives. 

Functions and Benefits 

PHIS will transform our ability to utilize data to inform all aspects of domestic inspection, import activities and 

export activities. It will allow FSIS to collect and analyze information about domestic and international food 

safety systems producing FSIS-regulated products, so that FSIS can identify food safety risks before they result 

in outbreaks or recalls, detecting problems before they reach consumers. 

Using multiple FSIS data sources, PHIS will allow analysts to identify trends that will automatically adjust 

domestic and import inspections and sampling, such as the relationship between Salmonella test results and 

inspection findings, notifying field and headquarters personnel about potential public health threats. 

PHIS will support automated decision criteria for consistent scheduling of inspection and sampling activities. 

Through the system, FSIS will provide inspection personnel the frequencies with which to perform verification 

tasks and the relative priorities of those tasks. However, the system will allow inspection personnel to manage 

their own inspection calendars based on their knowledge of establishments’ operations and their own 

workloads. FSIS will be able to monitor establishment data on a daily basis and to send built-in alerts when 

anomalies in the data are detected. For example, PHIS will send alerts when a large number of incomplete 

inspection activities or high rates of noncompliance are observed in an establishment. PHIS also will prompt 

inspection personnel when a routine verification of an establishment’s hazard analysis and supporting 

documentation is necessary. 

PHIS will streamline the export program by converting what is now solely a paper-based system to an 

automated one. The automated system covers all functions of the system, including establishment applications 

for approval for export, applications for export certificates and the issuance of export certificates. The system 

will enable an automated edit-check capability to ensure that certificates properly reflect a foreign country’s 

import requirements. 

The new system will allow FSIS to systematically verify the effectiveness of foreign food safety systems. It will 

also enable the advance receipt and verification of electronic foreign health certificates associated with arriving 

foreign shipments certified by a foreign government. Processes for auditing inspection programs of foreign 

countries exporting meat, poultry and processed egg products to the United States will also be automated. 

To enable greater exchange of information between FSIS and other federal agencies involved in tracking crossborder movement of import and export shipments of meat, poultry and processed egg products, PHIS will 

establish an electronic interface with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) Automated Commercial 

Environment (ACE), once ACE is compatible. 

Improving Operations 

With PHIS, inspection personnel will be able to perform inspection personnel directed procedures based on 

their findings and PHIS data as well as perform system-directed (i.e., unscheduled) procedures prompted by a 

trigger event, such as a positive pathogen result. In contrast, PBIS is unable to schedule procedures in response 
3

to ongoing results or findings. 

Establishment profiles, which were limited in the old system, are expanded under PHIS. It will provide the 

ability for compliance and non-compliance of verification activities to be documented. 

 

PHIS will track the completion of tasks and results, alert supervisors and automatically prompt inspection 

personnel to perform follow-up procedures when applicable. Under the old system, in-plant personnel must 

remember to perform follow-up procedures and there has been no effective way for supervisors to ensure 

completion of follow-up tasks. PHIS also provides for multiple layers for reviewing plant data by field 

personnel and other affected offices. 

The inspection personnel will record the compliance findings and regulations verified, whether or not the 

establishment is in compliance. Under the old system, inspection personnel only have documented specifics on 

noncompliance. 

Impact on Inspection in Establishments 

PHIS does not create new requirements or regulations for establishments regarding domestic inspection. What it 

will do is enable inspection personnel to better identify shortcomings in the food safety systems of 

establishments and anticipate problems before they result in adulterated products entering commerce. The new 

system will guide in-plant inspection personnel to focus their attention on the specific aspects of an 

establishment’s food safety systems and supporting documentation that have the most significant impact on 

public health. 

System for the Future 

PHIS is not only the future of FSIS—improving our operations and infrastructure—but is aligned with the Food 

Safety Working Group’s public-health focused approach to food safety. The system is state-of-the-art with 

checks and balances that will allow us to see what is working, as well as any gaps. It is designed for the purpose 

of reducing the number of foodborne illnesses. It is also designed to ensure transparency and accountability to 

the people we serve. 

For More Information 

To find out more about PHIS, visit the FSIS website at http://www.fsis.usda.gov/phis or contact the FSIS 

Congressional and Public Affairs Office at (202) 720-9113.