In this episode of Food Safety Matters, we speak to Dr. Edward Dudley, Director of the E. coli Reference Center and Professor of Food Science at Penn State University, about the potential for wastewater monitoring to aid foodborne pathogen surveillance and bolster foodborne illness reporting.
In a new study, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) evaluated the ability of artificial intelligence (AI) to detect foodborne illness outbreaks by analyzing online restaurant reviews. Although several challenges were identified that must be overcome before AI can be used routinely in epidemiological investigations, UKHSA believes the approach shows promise.
CDC released a summary of Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System data, analyzing the causes of foodborne illness outbreaks that occurred between 2014 and 2022.
Between 2017 and 2019, Canadian public health laboratories transitioned to whole genome sequencing (WGS) for foodborne illness outbreak surveillance. A recent study shows the positive impact of this transition of national outbreak detection and response for important foodborne pathogens.
A new app developed by University of Zurich (UZH) researchers, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), can aid the early detection of contagious outbreaks, such as gastrointestinal (GI) diseases contracted by people traveling abroad.
UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) surveillance of food purchased at retail in 2023–2024
found 87 percent of samples to be compliant with food safety and authenticity standards. Undeclared allergens, adulteration, mislabeling, and other noncompliances were reported.
Penn State University researchers have demonstrated the usefulness of wastewater monitoring for foodborne pathogen surveillance, after successfully isolating Salmonella from wastewater samples and linking them to clinical isolates from an existing foodborne illness outbreak.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) recently published an analysis of national data regarding cases and outbreaks of non-typhoidal Salmonella from 2013–2022.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Alliance for Food Safety will convene for its inception meeting in May. The Alliance is intended to address target goals for foodborne disease surveillance capacity-building set forth in the WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety 2022–2030.
