The CDC has officially confirmed that is no longer tracking six of eight pathogens that cause foodborne illnesses.
In communication with Food Safety News a spokesperson with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency will only track Salmonella and shiga-toxin producing E. coli (STEC) moving forward.
“Although FoodNet will narrow its focus to Salmonella and STEC, it will maintain both its infrastructure and the quality it has come to represent. Narrowing FoodNet’s reporting requirements and associated activities will allow FoodNet staff to prioritize core activities,” Gabrial Alvarado, CDC spokesman, told Food Safety News.
Alvarado said the cuts to FoodNet’s activities began on July 1 and included removing six pathogens from its surveillece activities. Those pathogens include Listeria, which often results in death. Other pathogens cut from FoodNet’s official work are Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Shigella, Vibrio and Yersinia. He said FoodNet has the option to continue to cover those pathogens, but did not say where funding would come from for those activities.
An unnamed CDC source recently told NBC News that FoodNet — the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network — activities were cut because of inadequate funding.
The cutback to FoodNet is the most significant reduction in surveillance since the USDA’s Microbiological Data Program (MDP) was shut down because of industry lobbying. The MDP began collecting and analyzing fresh produce samples in April 2001.
Craig Hedberg, a professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the University of Minnesota and co-director of the Minnesota Integrated Food Safety told the Center of Excellence, told the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy that the cuts to FoodNet put the nation in danger of more foodborne illnesses.
“The disturbing thing about cutting FoodNet funds is that it normalizes the idea that foodborne disease surveillance is expensive and unimportant,” he said. “In fact, it is the foundation of our food safety system, and needs further investments, not restrictions,” Hedberg said.
Alvarado told Food Safety News that while FoodNet will continue surveillance for Salmonella and STEC, two of the six pathogens FoodNet will no longer track — Campylobacter spp. and invasive Listeria monocytogenes — are top causes of “foodborne illnesses and related to hospitalizations and deaths in the United States.”
He also said there are two other pathogens included in the government’s Healthy People 2030’s goals to reduce foodborne illnesses that will no longer be tracked. FoodNet has played a crucial role in the CDC’s ability to track and investigate foorborne illness outbreaks.
“CDC remains committed to protecting the health of all Americans. Since 1995, FoodNet has helped build modern foodborne disease surveillance; as a result, today’s landscape is stronger and more comprehensive, with enhanced passive systems and other CDC platforms providing national monitoring for these pathogens,” he said.
The CDC’s own estimates, based in part on FoodNet data, show that Campylobacter — which is no longer tracked — alone caused 1.9 million foodborne illness cases in the United States in 2019, beating out Salmonella and STEC. Salmonella, Campylobacter, norovirus, Listeria, and STEC caused the most deaths.
FoodNet is a joint effort between CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 10 state health departments. Although state health departments are no longer required to track the six pathogens cut from FoodNet, they can continue to conduct surveillance for those pathogens at their own expense.
The Maryland Health Department told NBC News it would continue reporting for all eight pathogens regardless of changes to FoodNet. On the other hand, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said it would need to scale back surveillance for some pathogens if funding is decreased in Fiscal Year 2026.
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