ABSTRACT
Foodborne illness-causing agents affect health and finances, either directly as in medical care costs or indirectly through higher food prices at the grocery store. The Centers for Disease Control began publishing annual reports in 1961. Local health departments and the food poisoning surveillance team need to contact private physicians and hospitals to encourage reporting of outbreaks of foodborne illness. The impact of pathogenic newly recognized agents, as well as some historically well-known but unresolved foodborne disease problems. In each outbreak, the systemic pesticide aldicarb, which can build up to acutely toxic levels if it is applied to certain crops too close to harvest, was implicated as the causative agent. Toxic chemicals and other environmental contaminants make the news almost daily. While many of these chemicals adversely affect groundwater and air quality, many also threaten the food supply. Bacteria continue to be the major reported cause of foodborne illness in the United States, Canada, and other countries.
