Fed's increased surveillance identify more food-borne bacteria

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Tuesday issued a recall of 5.2 million pounds of ground beef over fears of salmonella contamination, adding tainted meat to a list of nearly two dozen foods caught up in multistate outbreaks of food-borne illness this year.

Health officials said it’s too early to determine whether the number of outbreaks this year is higher than in previous years, but they added that new technologies and increased surveillance are identifying food-borne bacteria quickly and in greater numbers.

“It has been a busy year,” said epidemiologist Laura Gieraltowski, head of the Foodborne Outbreak Response Team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Romaine lettuce, raw turkey, beef and even cereal are just some of the 23 foods the federal health agency has warned people away from this year — contaminated with bacteria such as salmonella, E. coli and listeria monocytogenes.

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