The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report on Thursday detailing the uptick in cases of food-borne illness in the United States. Three strains are most prevalent in the study are E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella. While the numbers have increased, the CDC has identified their new diagnostic protocol that only takes an hour to detect diseases rather than the 2-3 days it took previously. In addition, the frequency at which the test occur are far greater due to the shortened waiting time. However, they still warn to stay vigilant about warnings and make sure they avoid potentially contaminated foods because it still affects over 25,000 people a year.
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Last year, the CDC has 23 multi-state investigations tracking food-borne illness outbreaks, and is the most in the last ten years. There were multiple reports of E. coli in romaine and salmonella in eggs, raw beef, frozen chicken and canned pork. There were also individual products that were contaminated ranging from Kellog’s Honey Smacks to Hy-Vee Pasta Salad.
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The breakdown of the 25,606 reported cases of food poisoning goes: 9,723 cases of campylobacter, 9,084 cases of salmonella and 2,925 cases of E. coli. However, despite heavy regulations to reduce salmonella the number of cases hasn’t decreased in ten years. In conjunction with campylobacter also coming from chicken, it makes the product the most common cause of food poisoning.
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Officials at the CDC warn that, “last year was certainly attention-getting, and it continues this year with problems with produce, ground beef and poultry,” and the issue is that, “these infections live in food animals and their environment, and the farmer or rancher is not aware that they have a problem. A contamination can go to produce, and the microbes are invisible.”
