The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its Surveillance for Food-borne Disease Outbreaks Annual Report, which includes an analysis of all foodborne illness outbreaks reported in 2017.   CDC found that 841 foodborne disease outbreaks were reported in 2017, resulting in 14,481 illnesses, 827 hospitalizations, 20 deaths, and 14 food product recalls.  These recent statistics show that the number of foodborne disease outbreaks has decreased as compared to 2015.  The CDC report summarizes data from the National Outbreak Reporting System (NORS), which local, state, and territorial health departments use to report all waterborne, foodborne, and enteric disease outbreaks to the CDC.

Norovirus was the cause of 35 percent of the outbreaks, followed by Salmonella, which caused 29 percent of the outbreaks, and shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli, which caused 5 percent. Moreover, the highest number of outbreak-associated illnesses were from turkey (609 illnesses); fruit (521 illnesses); chicken (487 illnesses); and pork (376 illnesses).

CDC uses its annual report to acquire information on foods associated with outbreaks, which helps CDC identify foods most commonly reported in outbreaks and track how frequently certain foods are implicated.  The report also offers the agency insight into how well prevention measures are working, which can lead to new policies and practices.