ABSTRACT
The CDC (2012) estimates that 48 million people in the United States are stricken annually with gastroenteritis (i.e., inammation of the stomach and/or small intestine, which results in vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pains, and cramps) caused by an unspecied agent. The CDC denes an unspecied agent either as (1) an agent not yet identied or (2) identied microbes, chemicals, or other substances known to be in food but with an unknown ability to cause human illness. These unspeci-ed agents are responsible for an estimated 72,000 hospitalizations and 1700 deaths annually in the United States.
