The U.S. National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) has concluded the effect budget cuts and financial strains on health and agricultural departments have had at both the local and state level is leading to stagnating salaries and inadequate or underfunded training. The result of these trends is a high turnover rate of employment, staff with less experience and training, and a decreased ability to respond to foodborne outbreaks. Smaller municipalities and local agencies tend to experience these effects at higher rates.
The report, Assessment of Foodborne Illness Outbreak Response and Investigation Capacity in US Environmental Health Food Safety Regulatory Programs, contains the results of an extensive study of the ability of food safety agencies to respond to foodborne outbreaks.

The full report is available at http://www.neha.org/pdf/NEHA_FBIOutbreakCapacityAssessment_ResultsReport.pdf.