The FDA has released two new tools in their foodborne illness investigations: EIS (Executive Incident Summary Abstracts) and FOOD (Foodborne Outbreak Overview of Data). The EIS will be released after an outbreak is over, providing high level information about the outbreak and any new information that may have been discovered since the investigation ended. FOOD … Read more
Idaho illnesses have prompted the Idaho Central Health District into issuing warnings to consumers about unlicensed restaurants and unregulated food vendors. In the last few months, officials have received food poisoning complaints related to those facilities. Consumers are urged to use caution when purchasing foods from home vendors and to not visit unlicensed “underground” restaurants … Read more
The Government Accounting Office (GAO) is responsible for examining how taxpayer dollars are spent and provides Congress and federal agencies with objective, non-partisan, fact-based information. It is an independent, non-partisan agency that works for Congress. The latest GAO study of foodborne illness in the United States has found some issues and recommends a national food … Read more
Have you ever wanted to tell the FDA about a problem with food? The FDA has started a streamlined food complaints program to make the process easier. The complaints can be about an illness, an injury, an allergic reaction, concerns about a dietary supplement, or any concern about defects in the safety or quality of … Read more
McMaster researchers have created food packaging that can reveal contamination of food, possibly helping prevent foodborne illness. Researchers Akansha Prasad, co-lead author of the paper that describes the invention, which was published in the journal Advanced Materials said in a statement, “This is something that can benefit everyone. We’re hoping this technology will see lives, … Read more
Foodborne illness is back to pre-pandemic levels for some pathogens, according to research published in the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) for the week of June 30, 2023. The incidences that were higher were infections caused by Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, Yersinia, Vibrio, and cyclopsora. Campylobacter, Salmonella, Shigella, … Read more
The effects of climate change are stark and worrying. Most people have heard about rising sea water levels, more wildfires, and more extreme weather events. But did you know that climate change increases foodborne illness outbreak risks? A study published in Scientific Reports by Kuhn et al looks at the relationship between Campylobacter outbreaks and … Read more
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report has released information about incidence and trends of foodborne illness from their active surveillance network for 2016 – 2019. They have found that foodborne illnesses increased, so the Healthy People 2020 targets for reducing foodborne illness will not be met. In 2019, FoodNet … Read more
With the Center for Disease Control’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report report release detailing how foodborne illness increased by 65% in 2018 compared to 2015-2017, people are starting to think about the bacteria Campylobacter. This pathogen was the most common cause of bacterial foodborne illness in the United States in 2018, causing 19.5 illnesses per … Read more
Foodborne illnesses increased in 2018 compared to the period of 2015-2017, according to a new report by the Center for Disease Control for its Weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report for the week of April 26, 2019. The report states that this increase may are partially attributable to increased culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDTs). CIDT identifies pathogens that … Read more