Ciguatera toxin, which does not break down during cooking, can cause severe foodborne illness in humans who consume contaminated reef fish that feed on toxic microalgae. Climate change is altering algal and seaweed growth patterns, which may impact the rate of ciguatoxin accumulation by these fish species.

FDA Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation Network (CORE), in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and state and local public health and regulatory partners, conduct foodborne illness outbreak investigations, including those related to Cyclospora cayetanensis infections. In this article, the authors review the successes and challenges of identifying and responding to outbreaks caused by C. cayetanensis infections since 2013, the progress made, the challenges remaining, and what the future holds.

This column will expand on the findings of the FDA study of the economic evaluation of the GenomeTrakr whole genome sequencing (WGS) program, adding data on the use of sequencing and how it will continue to change food safety practices and markets. It will also discuss what FDA is doing with GenomeTrackr to uncover previously unseen outbreaks and how this is keeping pressure on processors to expand environmental monitoring and controls.

Foodborne illness infections in 2020 decreased as compared to the years 2017 to 2019.

STOP Foodborne Illness will be sending recommendations to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to update the country's food recall system.

In 2020, less people fell ill in Hong Kong from foodborne illness, but more outbreaks were reported.

A mysterious outbreak in October 2007, which affected about 450 people of all ages, was traced to table salt in which sodium chloride somehow had been replaced by sodium bromide, suggesting that food should be considered as a potential vehicle until it can be explicitly ruled out.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently released a report on foodborne illness in retail food store deli departments, using data collected between 2015–2016.

Foodborne illness outbreaks were scarce in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that trend is continuing for the first quarter of 2021.