Belgium has recorded the highest number of foodborne outbreaks in a year since recordkeeping began.
This past year, 571 outbreaks were reported to the National Reference Laboratory for Foodborne Outbreaks (LNR-TIA). A total of 2,457 people fell ill and 28 were hospitalized.
Data on outbreaks have been collected by Sciensano, the Belgian Institute for Health, since 1999. From 1999 to 2010, 39 to 116 outbreaks were reported each year, but this number doubled in 2011 to 281. There were an average of 336 outbreaks per year between 2011 and 2016. Almost 400 outbreaks were recorded in 2018.
FoodWorld 