— OPINION —

For nearly a decade and a half, food safety advocates like me have recited CDC’s 2011 foodborne illness estimates: 3,000 deaths. 128,000 hospitalizations. 48 million illnesses (1 in every 6 Americans).

At long last, CDC has provided us with an update to these estimates, or they have provided an update to the Government Accountability Office, which has provided us with an update because, as an independent, nonpartisan government agency within the legislative branch, GAO has not been indefinitely muzzled by the communications “pause” that prevents CDC from publishing more than “highlights” from its updates. In light of this “pause,” and many, many other recent developments, the new estimates set an important benchmark. 

As the GAO report makes clear that, in his second term, President Trump is inheriting significant food safety challenges. The new estimates do not provide an apples-to-apples comparison with the 2011 numbers. They focus instead on just the six most significant foodborne pathogens. Infections from those pathogens, however, have remained stubbornly high, causing about 10 million foodborne illnesses annually in the U.S., including an estimated 53,300 hospitalizations and more than 900 deaths. Infections from all foodborne pathogens greatly exceed the Healthy People 2030 goals, and for some, such as Campylobacter and E.coli, there has been “little or no detectable change” in ...