Deploying nEmesis: Preventing Foodborne Illness by Data Mining Social Media

CDC has even identified food safety as one of seven "winnable battles"; however, progress to date has been limited. We show that adaptive inspection process is 64 percent more effective at identifying problematic venues than the current state of the art. If fully deployed, our approach could prevent over 9,000 cases of foodborne illness and 557 hospitalizations annually in Las Vegas alone. Additionally, adaptive inspections result in unexpected benefits, including the identification of venues lacking permits, contagious kitchen staff, and fewer customer complaints filed with the Las Vegas health department.