Protect your employees, your customers,
and your brand with
Zero Hour Health

A healthy workforce boosts productivity, lowers absenteeism, fosters a positive work environment, and most importantly, lowers the risk to your company's brand and reputation.

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Trusted by the top names in business + hospitality

Health Crisis Prevention + Management
For Modern Businesses

Whether you have a growing hospitality group or a major nationwide concept, it’s imperative that you protect your reputation and brand loyalty from illness, outbreaks, and other health crises.

Zero Hour Health’s team of advisors will help you prevent and manage your risk so your team can focus on growing the business.

Advisory from the most knowledgeable industry experts, 24/7/365.

Whether it’s navigating a foodborne illness outbreak, receiving guidance on best practices with your local health department, or general questions about your employees’ health, we’re here to keep you, your staff, and your business safe.
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Detecting and preventing illnesses, before they go public.

The best way to stop a crisis is to prevent it from becoming one in the first place. We’ll help you create a culture of safe working, detect problematic illnesses before they spread, and, most importantly, keep your business out of the news.
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Protecting the most important asset in your businesses: your brand.

An outbreak is one of the few crises that can permanently damage a brand. From local news, to the nightly news, to the trading floors, your reputation is the foundation of your business and its value. Protecting that asset is a top priority.
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Screening and assisting the hiring process for at-risk positions.

Whether you need to do physical examinations to ensure a prospective employee can do the job, or your industry regulations call for a battery of exams, we streamline this process and handle it for every step of the way. Save time, hire quicker, and protect yourself against workers' comp claims.
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A suite of services to support every aspect of your operations.

This is just a core breakdown of the main services we provide to our clients. We build highly customized solutions to support any need you have.

ZHH Pro

ZHH Pro is our industry-best advisory service. We tailor our support to solve your most pressing needs, whether you've got 6 locations or 600 locations. We can provide 24/7/365, high-level clinical support to keep your business running.
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Wellness Checks

The single best way to prevent illness in the workplace is to prevent sick employees from showing up in the first place. ZHH Wellness Checks are the best solution to identify and assess potentially sick employees.
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Vaccination Programs

From Flu to Hep A, vaccinations are a vital part of keeping your workforce healthy. We help businesses identify employee immunization history, track their records, and facilitate vaccinations both on-site and off.
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Exams & Regulatory Testing

Ensure that potential employees are fit to perform their roles safely and effectively using our industry-best pre-employment programs. We help employers maintain compliance with stringent industry standards and regulations without adding friction to the hiring process.
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Inbox
July 18, 2025
Corn Syrup = The New Seed Oil? 🌽

Health News:

  • RFK Jr. is urging Canada not to cull 400 ostriches exposed to the bird flu.  (Politico)
  • As some families lose trust in medical institutions, they’re opting to have babies at home. (NPR)
  • Pertussis (whooping cough) cases are rising. Florida is a hotspot with 51 new cases in the past week. (Brown Pandemic Center)
  • CDC and FDA are investigating two different Salmonella outbreaks linked to frozen sprouted beans and pistachio cream. (CIDRAP)
  • More than half of large U.S. employers plan to scale back health benefits as weight-loss and drug spending soars. (Reuters)
  • A man in Oregon got the plague from his pet cat last year. (MMWR)
  • Only 35-40% of pregnant women and parents of young kids said they would accept all recommended vaccines on schedule, according to a recent survey by Emory University and the CDC. Most were undecided or planned to refuse or delay at least some of their kids’ vaccines. (CIDRAP)
  • Los Angeles is considering a disaster registry intended to help disabled and senior residents in a crisis, but disability advocates warn against false assurances. (KFF Health News)
  • 80% of U.S. counties have “health care deserts,” where residents lack access to timely care. (Newsweek)
  • Most adults don’t need tetanus and diphtheria booster shots as long as childhood vaccination rates stay high, a new study shows. They do still need pertussis boosters, and in the U.S. all 3 are often combined into the Tdap vaccine. (YLE)
  • USDA rolled out a comprehensive plan to combat foodborne illness, including a focus on Listeria and Salmonella prevention. (USDA)

Mental Health & Substance Use News:

  • The specialized LGBTQ youth service within 988 is being shut down on orders from the Trump administration. (Hill)
  • Men 75 and older have the highest risk for suicide. It’s an overlooked demographic and the rate has been rising. (STAT)

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call 988 or message the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Youth LGBTQ+ crisis resources still exist, like the Trevor project, which is free and confidential: Text ‘START’ to 678-678 or call at 1-866-488-7386.

Best Questions:

What is the situation on the ground with local health departments after federal funding cuts? How are they reacting?

Up to 90% of the funding for state and local infectious disease programs comes from CDC grants, so the cuts are affecting nearly every health department that ZHH works with during outbreaks. Most have had to cut staff and pare back some programs. 

They all still have epidemiologists, who we often work with on potential foodborne illness outbreaks. These folks are fantastic food safety detectives that are our closest partners on most outbreaks. But many health departments have fewer on staff now, which can translate to slower response time. 

Previously, we’d often hear about an outbreak of a major foodborne illness like E. coli, Salmonella, or Hep A directly from the state or county health department after a few community members tested positive. We were usually able to work with them to identify a source and quickly stop any further transmission. But now, we’ve had several situations where we’re hearing about these cases later, once there’s not much that can be done – the food that may have been contaminated is long gone, or the sick employee is no longer infectious. 

The good news is that despite widespread layoffs, we do still have strong partners at CDC and FDA who can support when there’s an outbreak. Other departments aren’t so lucky, like when Milwaukee asked for analysis help when local high schools tested high for lead, but at the time the Childhood Lead Poisoning Program had all been put on administrative leave. 

In short, there are still thousands of dedicated public health officials working at the county, state, and federal level to help prevent and respond to outbreaks, but they’re all working with more limitations and uncertainty than they were before. We’ve said it before and we’ll continue to beat this drum – this is the time for employers to step up and take a more active role in food safety and employee health. 

Sources: ZHH, CIDRAP

Is corn syrup the next seed oil?

Corn syrup may be going the way of seed oils as the next target in the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement. This week, President Trump said that Coca-Cola had agreed to start using cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup as sweetener saying “You’ll see. It’s just better!” 

Taste-wise? Maybe so (to each his own!). Health-wise? Not so much. Cane sugar and corn syrup are extremely similar in terms of nutritional value. Neither is a truly healthy option. 

Like most health trends, this one is rooted in a kernel of truth: both sweeteners are made up of about half glucose and half fructose, but cane sugar has about 5% less fructose. Over time, too much fructose can increase the risk for type 2 diabetes. When we look at just how much soda Americans drink, even a small decrease in fructose across the whole population might actually have an impact, if small. 

But this is like calling a cigarette ‘healthier’ because it has 5% fewer carcinogens — technically true, but maybe missing the point. Swapping high-fructose corn syrup for cane sugar makes the soda sound better without making it any less sugary or lower calorie. 

Long story short, this is a health topic that doesn’t actually address the underlying issue. It’s missing the forest for the trees — focusing on marginal changes like switching from corn syrup to cane sugar while ignoring the much bigger issue: that Americans consume way too much added sugar that drives chronic diseases like obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Still, these types of switches can really matter to consumers. We’ll be keeping a close eye on the public reaction if Coke and other major brands make the swap. 

Sources: STAT, NBC

Best Read:

CIDRAP from the University of Minnesota continues to be one of our best sources of news on infectious disease and community health. We were inspired by this article to share our own experience in our first best question today:

State, local public health officials grapple with fallout from funding, job cuts - CIDRAP

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"Partnering with ZHH was a game changer. The transparency, visibility, technology, consistency, and time spent on supporting our business, it's as if all the stars aligned and it just made sense. We are big fans."
“Zero Hour Health helps ensure the wellness of our team members and guests. The trusted service helps with industry relationships and is integral to our investment in food safety across the organization. “
"When any potential health crisis arises, we turn to Zero Hour Health to help coordinate the clinical resources necessary- testing, confirming diagnoses and vaccinating employees.  Their relationships with health departments have proven critical to Texas Roadhouse.  ZHH is an invaluable partner to our brand and we can't imagine operating without them."

Let’s talk about how ZHH can protect your business!

Schedule a time with our team to discuss your unique challenges and how we can help!

Every organization has factors that make their health crisis prevention team different, but Zero Hour Health works with your team to tailor a program that solves all of your pain points.

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