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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched an updated Foodborne Outbreak Online Database Tool (FOOD Tool) to assist users in searching over nearly 20 years of outbreak data.
The FOOD Tool allows users to search foodborne disease data by year, state, location of food preparation, food and ingredient, and cause. It also provides information on number of illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, germs, and etiology (suspected or confirmed), according to a statement from the CDC.
The data are sourced from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS), which captures information on foodborne outbreaks caused by enteric bacterial, viral, parasitic, and chemical agents reported by state, local, and territorial public health agencies. These data are analyzed to understand the impact of foodborne outbreaks and the causes, foods, settings, and contributing factors (ie, food kept at room temperature for too long) involved in outbreaks.
The FOOD Tool was originally developed in 2009 and includes national foodborne outbreak data reported to CDC from 1998– 2014. New interactive features include maps, graphs, and tables that now allow users to search by specific foods and ingredients, view a “quick stats” display, and get case counts for multistate outbreaks.
For more information visit CDC.gov.
This article originally appeared on MPR
