The Global Food-source Identifier (GFI) was developed as an international, open, shared, and searchable data catalog of past foodborne disease outbreaks (FBO) (Food Control Volume 121, March 2021, 107623). The system has two objectives: (i) create a collaborative online community of FBO investigators, encouraging the international sharing of data; (ii) to support foodborne outbreak investigation worldwide by providing access to detailed records of past outbreaks, which can convey insight into potential ‘risk foods’ of a detected pathogen. GFI is hosted within a Virtual Research Environment (VRE). The scientists developing the system selected 46 attributes to characterize an outbreak record. The analysis included the relationship between the most frequent causative agents and outbreak food sources. It is envisioned that GFI will contribute to the success of FBO investigations worldwide. The database was populated with records of 102 outbreaks in Denmark from 2005 to 2016, covering the most frequent pathogens and a range of typing methods to demonstrate the system potential. @ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956713520305399
