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In late 2018, the Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) published a report on foodborne illness source attribution from 1998 through 2016. The report used outbreak data to produce new estimates for foods responsible for foodborne illnesses caused by four pathogens in 2016: Salmonella, E. coli O157, Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter.
While all these pathogens are of concern because of the frequency and/or severity of the illnesses they cause, the results of the Salmonella illness assessment are of particular interest: Unlike the other pathogens which were most often linked to specific foods, Salmonella illnesses were broadly attributed across multiple food categories. As stated in the report, “The attribution of Salmonella illnesses to multiple food categories suggests that interventions designed to reduce illnesses from these pathogens need to target a variety of food categories.” Such interventions should include a combination of detection, prevention, and control.
FoodWorld 