FoodNet Report Shows Mixed Bag of Foodborne Illness Trends
New federal data released by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) shows little improvement in terms of foodborne illnesses compared to previous years. The 2014 Food Safety Progress Report compares foodborne outbreaks with data collected from 2006 to 2008, and 2011 to 2013.
“The news is mixed,” says Dr. Patricia Griffin, chief of the enteric diseases epidemiology branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control's (CDC) Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases. “Some infections declined but others increased and most did not change. Clearly, more work is needed.”
FoodNet is made up of the CDC, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and 10 state health departments. Together, they track occurrences of Campylobacter, Escherichia coli, Listeria, Salmonella, Shigella and other foodborne pathogens.
Below are some of FoodNet’s key findings based on laboratory testing in the 10 states it monitors, which vary greatly from general estimates previously published by the CDC:
The current number of infections is a decrease of two percent versus the number reported in 2011, but it’s a 12 percent increase compared to 2006. It is important to note that the CDC does incorporate FoodNet’s findings into its own estimates. Also, while FoodNet only tracks illness in 15 percent of the population, the findings are considered to be representative of the entire U.S.