Foodborne Disease Agents

Given increasing concerns over bacterial antimicrobial resistance, the United States Food and Drug Administration teamed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Emerging Infections Program to collect data on the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance among foodborne bacteria.

Foodborne illness is a serious public-health problem in the United States. In 1999, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that approximately 76 million new cases of food-related illness occur in the United States each year. More recent data on sporadic illnesses and outbreaks suggests that this problem is not going away.