Estimates of Disease Burden Associated with Contaminated Food in the United States and Globally

Estimating the human health impact of foodborne disease is a complex task; it requires data from many sources and relies on many assumptions. Using data from surveillance, surveys, and other sources, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that major known pathogens and unspecified agents transmitted by food result in an estimated 47.8 million illnesses, 127,839 hospitalizations, and 3037 deaths each year in the United States. Several other countries have estimated foodborne disease burden using various measures, including disease incidence, the numbers of persons with sequelae of foodborne infections, and economic costs. In 2007, the World Health Organization launched an initiative to estimate the global burden of foodborne disease as an advocacy tool for food safety policy. Estimating the burden of foodborne disease can assist with policy formation and evaluation of the effect of interventions.