Foodbook: Canadian Food Exposure Study to Strengthen Outbreak Response

The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is seeking a vendor to conduct a large national telephone survey. The survey will be conducted over a 6 month period from April 1 to September 30, 2014. The vendor will use land line and cellular telephone calling lists for all provinces and territories to interview 11,016 Canadians in English, French and provide on demand translation into Inuktitut if requested. The contracting authority may exercise the option to complete an additional 6 months of data collection. The vendor will have one month following completion of data collection to provide the final data, nationally representative estimates and a final written report summarizing call statistics to the contract authority.

‘Foodbook’ is a population survey that will determine Canadians exposure to foods that may serve as vehicles of foodborne infections over a seven-day period. These data are essential for timely and effective foodborne illness outbreak response. Investigators will compare these data to foods eaten by individuals involved in outbreaks to identify foods most likely to be the cause of the outbreak and to strengthen the epidemiological evidence required to remove the implicated food from the market (e.g., many cases report eating spinach; is this expected or unusual?). The survey data will also be used to inform risk assessments and surveillance programs; estimate the burden of gastrointestinal illness in Canada; examine relationships between eating patterns, obesity and socioeconomic status; and develop disease prevention and control measures. These data will allow public health and food safety authorities to implement targeted risk mitigation strategies that will have the greatest impacts on the health of Canadians.

Mandatory Criteria

MT1-Must be a survey research company, unit, centre or comparable entity with significant experience: 1) Conducting telephone surveys (3 or more telephone surveys with completion rates of greater than 500 completed interviews per month based on a strict random sample criteria). 2) Completing a minimum of two projects which required telephone surveys to be conducted in English and French. 3) Sampling survey respondents using both cell phone and landline sampling frames. Bidder MUST provide three (3) written examples which describe in detail projects successfully completed during the last five (5) years. Within these three examples the company must demonstrate how the company meets each of these required experiences. The bidder MUST provide the contact details of the client for each of the above examples. The company MUST have completed the above work to the satisfaction of the client.

MT2-Bidder must propose a project team which includes at least one individual with experience designing survey sampling frames and statistically weighting survey responses, and a sufficient team of additional resources to complete the project as outlined in Annex A - Statement of Work. The proposed work breakdown by resource must be adequate to meet the needs of the project.

MT3-Bidder must be able to comply with security requirements as outlined in the attached Security Requirement Check List at bid closing.