IFSAC Releases New Report on Foods Commonly Linked to Illness

Foodborne illness source attribution estimates for 2013 for Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter using multi-year outbreak surveillance data, United States.

IFSAC Releases New Report on Foods Commonly Linked to Illness

Today, the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) released a report that helps us better understand the types of foods that contribute to foodborne illness. Each year, an estimated 9 million people get sick, 56,000 are hospitalized, and 1,300 die of foodborne diseases caused by known pathogens.

The IFSAC report relies on multi-year surveillance outbreak data to estimate the most common food categories responsible for illnesses caused by Salmonella, Escherichia coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter in 2013. The report’s findings include:

• Salmonella illnesses came from a wide variety of foods.
• E. coli O157 illnesses were most often linked to vegetable row crops (such as leafy greens) and beef.
• Listeria monocytogenes illnesses were most often linked to fruits and dairy products.
• Non-dairy Campylobacter illnesses were most often linked to chicken.

These new estimates can help inform efforts to prioritize food safety initiatives, interventions, and policies for reducing foodborne illness. IFSAC is a collaboration of CDC, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service.