Almost one-third of the year is in the rearview mirror at the federal Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and only two new multistate outbreaks of foodborne illnesses are on the books.
A dangerous outbreak of Listeriosis bubbled up out of Michigan late February involving Enoki mushrooms grown in South Korea. In its latest report on April 8, the CDC reported 36 confirmed cases in 17 states that involve 30 hospitalizations and four deaths.
As of March 19, the second outbreak involving the rare E.coli O103 had sickened 39 people in six states with two hospitalizations and no deaths. Clover sprouts are blamed for the second active outbreak of 2020.
The two foodborne illnesses outbreaks are small potatoes when compared to the COVID-19 outbreak that by April 15 infected 641,315, resulting in 28,386 deaths. By this point in a more typical year, CDC usually is working on a half dozen or more multistate foodborne outbreaks.
FoodWorld 