Little progress has been made toward reducing food poisoning in the U.S., according to new federal data.
Illnesses from salmonella, the most common cause of foodborne sickness, were down 9% in 2013 compared with the average from 2010-2012, according to the findings published Thursday in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Still, more than 2,000 people were hospitalized for salmonella poisoning in 2013 and 27 people died from it.
In its Healthy People 2020 initiative, HHS set a goal of reducing the incidence of salmonella illness to 11.4 per 100,000 people by the end of the decade. The rate in 2013 was 15 per 100,000 people, the same as the figure from 2005-2006 used as the baseline for the public health initiative.
In all there were more than 19,000 reported cases of foodborne infections in the U.S. in 2013, resulting in 4,200 hospitalizations and 80 deaths, according to data obtained through a tracking network that includes 10 state health departments as well as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration. In seven out of the nine infections tracked by the network, the highest rates of incidents occurred in children under age 5.
Compared with averages from 2006 to 2008, the 2013 rates were either the same or had increased for nearly all of the most common foodborne diseases: salmonella, campylobacter (found mostly in chicken and dairy products) shigella (often caused when food handlers don't wash hands after using the bathroom) and vibrio (associated with eating raw shellfish),
Rates of infection from campylobacter increased by 13% in 2013 compared with the average from 2006 to 2008, resulting in more than 1,000 hospitalizations and 12 deaths. Vibrio infections were at their highest levels since 1996, at 0.51 cases per 100,000 people, with the number of cases totaling 242 in 2013 and resulting in 55 hospitalizations and two deaths.
“The results were mixed,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, deputy director for the CDC's Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases. “Some improvements were made, but more work is needed.”
In December, the USDA released its Salmonella Action Plan, which included strategies to modernize the inspection of slaughtered meat and poultry. During a briefing with reporters, Dr. David Goldman, assistant administrator for the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, said the agency is working on new inspection standards for cut and ground poultry.
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