Common Sources Of Foodborne Illness

From National Institutes of Health, MedlinePlus, "U.S. Officials Pinpoint Common Sources of Foodborne Illnesses: Almost 2 million Americans fall ill each year, report notes" by Robert Preidt:

...foodborne illness that strike nearly 2 million Americans each year, a U.S. government report finds.

More than 80 percent of E. coli O157 illnesses are linked to beef and vegetable row crops, such as leafy vegetables, while 77 percent of salmonella infections are associated with seeded vegetables (such as tomatoes), eggs, fruit, chicken, beef, sprouts and pork, the report showed.

About three-quarters of campylobacter illnesses are linked with dairy (66 percent) and chicken (8 percent). Most of the outbreaks caused by dairy were associated with raw milk or cheese produced from raw milk, such as unpasteurized queso fresco, officials said.

Fruit is implicated in 50 percent of listeria infections, followed by dairy at 31 percent, according to the investigators at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

However, they noted there is a lack of data about listeria outbreaks, and the large role of fruit in listeria illness reflects the impact of a single outbreak linked to cantaloupes in 2011. There are also limitations in data about campylobacter outbreaks.