Public health laboratories form the backbone of foodborne outbreak detection and response by detecting clusters of related disease cases that may later be identified as outbreaks. Routine, accurate testing is the only way to definitively identify harmful food contaminants and adulterants. Public health laboratories partner with the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as members of PulseNet, the national molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance. Without PulseNet, many widespread national foodborne disease outbreaks would not be detected. Get the latest information on current foodborne outbreaks on
CDC's website.
Diagnosing Illness, Detecting Outbreaks
Public health laboratories conduct foodborne disease surveillance testing for Salmonella, Campylobacter, Shiga Toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), Listeria and other important pathogens. They perform specialized testing on tens of thousands of foodborne disease isolates forwarded annually by commercial and clinical laboratories. Epidemiologists, regulators and policy makers use this information to monitor foodborne disease trends, plan food safety programs, and develop and evaluate food safety policies, among other activities.
Monitoring Our Food Supply
During a foodborne disease outbreak, state agricultural and chemical laboratories often partner with public health departments and federal regulators to test suspected foods to help find the cause of the outbreak. Once the cause is determined, state regulatory partners work with the
US Food and Drug Administration or US Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service to conduct a trace-back investigation to find out which retailer(s) sold the implicated food item, where the retailer purchased it and, eventually, the place where it was produced or grown.
State agricultural and chemical laboratories also perform routine human and/or animal food testing to monitor compliance with state and federal regulations. They sample and analyze products ranging from bulk fertilizer and livestock feed to pet food and fresh produce to ensure that the products are free of pathogens, harmful chemicals and/or contain the ingredients listed. Some product recalls result from a labeling violation rather than contamination. Most of these state laboratories upload their data to
GenomeTrakr, FDA's network that utilizes whole genome sequencing data from public health and university laboratories to identify pathogens in food and environmental samples. The data can be compared to clinical illness cases to speed foodborne illness outbreak investigations, identify contaminated products to be removed from commerce, and identify harborage organisms in a facility.