Food

CDC and Food Safety
‘‘I am the one asking you—on

Food-related diseases affect tens of millions of people,
kill thousands, and cause billions of dollars in health
care-related costs each year.Reducing foodborne
illness by just 1% would keep about 500,000 Americans
from getting sick each year; reducing foodborne illness
by 10% would keep 5 million from getting sick.

behalf of myself,my family,
and the 1500 others who were
sickened—please make our
food system safe.”

—Testimony from the congressional hearing,
“The Outbreak of Salmonella in Eggs,” held
September 22, 2010What is CDC’s role in food safety?
Food safety depends on strong partnerships. CDC and the regulatory
agencies (the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] and the US
Department of Agriculture’s FoodSafety and Inspection Service [FSIS]) play
complementary roles in the federal food safety effort. State and local health
departments also play critical roles in all aspects of food safety.

Currentfood safety
challenges

CDC provides the vital link between illness in people and the food safety
systems of government agencies and food producers.
CDC does this by:
Monitoring human illness—Tracking the occurrence of foodborne diseases

Challenges to food safety will continue to
arise in unpredictable ways, largely due to:
Changes in our food production and
supply

Defining thepublic health burden of foodborne illness

Changes in the environment
leading to food contamination

New and emerging
germs, toxins, and
antibiotic resistance
New and different
contaminatedfoods, such as
prepackaged raw
cookie dough,
bagged spinach, and
peanut butter, causing
illness

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Grains -Bean
usk
Moll
gs
Eg

Rising number of
multistate outbreaks

Attributing illnessto specific foods and settings

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r
F in
fi sh

Poultry

Empowering state and local health departments

Pork
Leafy greens

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