Launch: Foodborne Chicago

Today marks the launch of Foodborne Chicago, a website that connects people who complain about food poisoning on Twitter to the people who can help them out— the Chicago Department of Public Health.

We use the City’s Open311 system to directly submit your information to make a request about your food poisoning incident.

Here’s info from the About page of the project:

This is a project of the Smart Chicago Collaborative, a civic organization devoted to improving lives in Chicago through technology. We’ve worked with a whole host of partners inside and outside of government to pull together this simple interface to get your information directly to City of Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) so it can be of use to everyone.

Foodborne illness is a public health issue. If you are feeling sick and you think it’s from eating in a public place, it’s a good thing to alert others about the possible danger.

The CDPH Food Protection Division fielded 1859 complaints in 2013, leading to 174 restaurant investigations for suspected food poisoning per year. The CDC estimates, however, that approximately 45% of foodborne illness goes unreported. The average resident may be unaware that they can file a complaint, much less how to file a complaint.

The City of Chicago has a robust and simple complaint submission system– the 311 system. Restaurant complaints are routed to the CDPH when food poisoning is suspected. When a resident makes a restaurant complaint, the City passes it on to the CDPH Food Protection Services follows up with the resident. If warranted, an inspection team is dispatched to the restaurant in question.

Once you complete this form, the City of Chicago takes it from there. We use the City’s Open311 system to directly submit your information. We do not maintain a copy of your complaint and have nothing to do with the status of the issue. We’re just some people using technology to help improve communication between Chicago residents and the government that serves them.