Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit Seven (NEPMU-7) conducted a Food and Water Risk Assessment (FWRA) in Cameroon, Aug. 12.

The FWRA, a first for Navy Medicine, was conducted by Lt. Cmdr. David Veenhuis, NEPMU-7 environmental health officer (EHO).

This marks the first time the Navy conducted the assessment since the Veterinary Service FWRA training course was developed to standardize the assessment methodology and reporting for Department of Defense (DoD) public health personnel. After completing the course in early 2015, Veenhuis was requested to support U. S. Army Africa in conducting the FWRA.

"It is an honor to be the first Navy EHO to conduct an official FWRA," said Veenhuis. "This shows the long history that the EHO community has working in the joint operational environment providing public support 'any time, any place.'"

FWRAs are conducted when there are insufficient or no DoD-approved food sources available to support short-term events and exercises outside of the continental United States. Food, bottled water, and ice providers are assessed using a risk-based assessment for actual or potential health threats; intentional and unintentional microbiological, chemical, or physical contamination of the feeding system and products; evaluating potential exposure pathways; and determining countermeasures and mitigation strategies to control or reduce the health threats to DoD personnel.

Valid for six months, the FWRA provides operational commanders with information used to select food and water resources that meet DoD public health standards for deployed personnel.

Prior to the development of the joint training, only Veterinary Services personnel were able to complete the assessments. Now that trained Navy Medicine public health personnel may conduct FWRAs, operational commanders have increased capacity and flexibility to get mission-ready and protect personnel deployed forward.

"Now that we have Navy environmental health officers trained to execute FWRA, the available pool of trained assessors to support missions for all services has been expanded, ensuring our personnel are protected and eliminating potential gaps in assessments," said Tony Carotenuto, Navy Marine Corps Public Health Center senior sanitarian.

FWRAs are managed by the Veterinary Services Food Protection program of the U. S. Army Public Health Center. For more information on FWRA and training opportunities, visit http://phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/foodwater/fwra/Pages/default.aspx.

For more information on Navy Public Health visit: http://www.med.navy.mil/sites/nmcphc/Pages/Home.aspx

For more news from Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, visit www.navy.mil/local/nmcphc/