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We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com. Back to Healio Key takeaways: Food recalls have remained relatively on par compared with previous years. However, the FDA investigated significantly more foodborne outbreaks this past summer than in 2024 and 2025. It was a summer of headline-grabbing foodborne outbreaks \u2014 the diarrhea-inducing iceberg lettuce, the jalape\u00f1os with Salmonella, and the class 1 recall of 19 million eggs, to name a few. But was this past summer really worse for outbreaks than in previous years, or a case of media hysteria?
A historic multistate Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce lasted throughout most of the summer. Image: Adobe Stock
\u201cWhen multiple outbreaks are in the news, it may seemthatfoodborne illnesses are increasing, but increased media attentiondoesn\u2019tnecessarily mean they are on the rise overall,\u201d said Elizabeth R. Daly, DrPH, MPH, the director of infectious disease programs at the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, a national nonprofit that represents epidemiologists at state, local, tribal and territorial levels in the United States. Different perspectives Daly noted that the total number of food recalls was \u201cgenerally average\u201dfor the entire year, according to data from the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). In fact, the FDA posted a year-over-year chart on X showing that the number of recalls declined in 2026, with an accompanying message that said, in part: \u201cDon\u2019t believe the fake news. Our data tell the true story of public health protection.\u201d (The chart, posted on Aug. 21, showed recall totals for fiscal years running from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.) However, a closer look at FDA data tells a different story. The FDA initiated 16 foodborne outbreak investigations this past summer, compared with nine in 2025 and seven in 2024. So far this calendar year, the agency has reported 22 outbreak investigations \u2014 an annual pace of roughly 30 \u2014 which would represent a moderate increase over previous years. In both 2024 and 2025, the FDA investigated 26 outbreaks. It averaged 25 yearly investigations from 2021 to 2025. Meanwhile, one massive event \u2014 the Cyclospora outbreak linked to iceberg lettuce \u2014 has skewed the FDA\u2019s total-illness data. According to the agency, there were 12,883 laboratory-confirmed illnesses in the largest Cyclospora outbreak in U.S. history, accounting for nearly 90% of the 14,404 illnesses for all foodborne outbreaks this year. As a result, the confirmed illness count for all 2026 outbreaks is about 1,500% greater than in 2025 and about 700% greater than in 2024. \u201cA significant\u00a0Cyclospora\u00a0outbreak can contribute to an increase in reported illnesses during a particular period,\u201d Daly said, \u201cbut it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean foodborne illness overall is increasing at the same rate.\u201d \u2018A deceptive thing\u2019 Outbreaks aren\u2019t everything, according to Healio | Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member J. Glenn Morris Jr., MD, MPH&TM. \u201cOutbreaks are, in many ways, a deceptive thing,\u201d he said. \u201cThey get everybody\u2019s attention and the news media gets involved. … What\u2019s really important are the rates of ongoing sporadic disease.\u201d Morris said sporadic foodborne disease is likelier to erupt into outbreaks after the Trump administration scaled back FoodNet last year, removing six pathogens from the program\u2019s core monitoring list, including Cyclospora, the parasite that can live on fruits and vegetables and is responsible for the cyclosporiasis outbreak. \u201cWhat\u2019s going to start happening is we\u2019re going to get more and more sporadic disease because we\u2019re taking away a lot of the barriers that we\u2019ve put in place to minimize the rate of sporadic disease, and FoodNet is one such operation that was designed to monitor sporadic disease,\u201d he said. Morris, who helped establish FoodNet in 1995 during his tenure at the USDA, also said the administration\u2019s personnel cuts to the FDA and USDA have compromised food safety. \u201cThe FDA has substantial problems in terms of food safety because it doesn\u2019t have adequate inspectors,\u201d he said, adding in jest, \u201cThe thing about inspections: If you don\u2019t do them, then there\u2019s no problem.\u201d \u2018A perfect storm\u2019 HHS defended the administration\u2019s foodborne outbreak response and surveillance this past summer. \u201cThe Trump administration has mounted a robust response to each outbreak, working closely with health departments in all 50 states and leading the public health response by promptly identifying known sources and providing Americans with the information they need to protect themselves,\u201d an HHS spokesperson told Healio. The spokesperson\u00a0said the CDC laboratory \u201csupporting foodborne outbreak investigations was not impacted by reductions in force, and the agency maintains a dedicated team investigating foodborne outbreaks and working closely with state and local health departments.\u201d Morris said an inherent flaw of the country\u2019s food-safety system is that multiple agencies track and respond to foodborne illnesses, calling it \u201cnot optimal.\u201d \u201cThere\u2019s not a single agency responsible for what happened,\u201d Morris said of the cyclosporiasis outbreak. Combined with surveillance and personnel reductions at government food-safety agencies, Morris said Americans dealt with the consequence this past summer: \u201cIt was a perfect storm,\u201d he said. For more information: Elizabeth R. Daly, DrPH, MPH, and J. Glenn Morris Jr., MD, MPH&TM, can be reached at infectiousdisease@healio.com. Published by: Sources\/Disclosures Source: Healio Interviews References: About FoodNet. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/foodnet\/about\/index.html. Published April 28, 2026. Accessed July 15, 2026. CDC. Cyclospora case data. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/cyclosporiasis\/cases\/index.html.\u00a0Updated Sept. 15, 2026. Accessed Sept. 23, 2026. CDC. Salmonella outbreak linked to shell eggs. https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/salmonella\/outbreaks\/shell-eggs-07-26\/index.html. Updated Sept. 3, 2026. Accessed Sept. 23, 2026. FDA. Investigation of multistate outbreak of Cyclospora illnesses: Iceberg lettuce (July 2026). https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/outbreaks-foodborne-illness\/investigation-multistate-outbreak-cyclospora-illnesses-iceberg-lettuce-july-2026. Updated Sept. 11, 2026. Accessed Sept. 23, 2026. FDA. Investigations of foodborne illness outbreaks. https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/outbreaks-foodborne-illness\/investigations-foodborne-illness-outbreaks. Updated Sept. 23, 2026. Accessed Sept. 23, 2026. FDA. Outbreak investigation of Salmonella: Eggs (July 2026). https:\/\/www.fda.gov\/food\/outbreaks-foodborne-illness\/outbreak-investigation-salmonella-eggs-july-2026. Sept. 3, 2026. 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