Imported Fish and Spices from Asia Top among Foods Linked to Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

According to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Foodborne disease outbreaks caused by imported food appeared to rise in 2009 and 2010. The report, presented this week at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, further indicated that close to 50 percent of the disease outbreaks pointed to foods which came to the United States from areas which had not previously been associated with and outbreaks.

“It’s too early to say if the recent numbers represent a trend, but CDC officials are analyzing information from 2011 and will continue to monitor for these outbreaks in the future,” said Hannah Gould, Ph.D., an epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases and the lead author.

Of the imported foods which were tainted by disease, the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System which reviewed 5 years of data from 2005-2010 said that imported fish were the most common source of implicated imported foodborne disease outbreaks with 17 outbreaks. The next closest culprit appeared from the data to be spices which were responsible for six outbreaks including five from fresh or dried peppers.

From the data the CDC team showed that 39 outbreaks and 2,348 illnesses were linked to imported food from 15 countries with almost 50 percent of outbreaks occurring in 2009 and 2010. Additionally, close to 45 percent of the imported foods causing outbreaks came from Asia.

“As our food supply becomes more global, people are eating foods from all over the world, potentially exposing them to germs from all corners of the world, too,” Gould said. “We saw an increased number of outbreaks due to imported foods during recent years, and more types of foods from more countries causing outbreaks.”

While the numbers from the CDC are concerning, Gould further warned that the findings likely underestimate the true number of outbreaks due to imported foods as the origin of many foods causing outbreaks is either not known or not reported.

“We need better – and more – information about what foods are causing outbreaks and where those foods are coming from,” Gould said. “Knowing more about what is making people sick, will help focus prevention efforts on those foods that pose a higher risk of causing illness.”