Despite extensive efforts to keep pathogens out of the U.S. food supply, outbreaks of foodborne disease still occur. They are stopped through public health investigations and timely response. State departments of public health maintain surveillance for these outbreaks and act in coordination with other States to assure vendors and manufacturers remove contaminated product from the market. Prompt actions minimize the number of illnesses caused by these events. The investigations used to identify and control outbreaks also provide the food industry with important information to improve their processes.
Researchers at USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in collaboration with State public health officials in Iowa, developed a methodology that can help show the value of foodborne outbreak investigations conducted by State and Federal public health officials and subsequent food recalls. To test their model as a replicable case study, researchers used a recent Salmonella outbreak involving pre-packaged chicken salad sold by a midwestern grocery store chain. This outbreak began in early February 2018. Within 4 days of observing a spike in reported Salmonella-positive samples, Iowa public health officials identified the source of the outbreak and the grocer removed the product from its stores across eight States. Within an additional 4 days, enough information was available to issue a consumer warning to avoid the product.
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