File micrograph: A Salmonella bacterium in a digitally colorized CDC scanning electron micrograph, 2008. CDC / Janice Haney Carr. Public domain; available free from CDC PHIL. Cropped and resized. CDC does not endorse JBizNews.
Federal food-safety officials are investigating two new Salmonella outbreaks involving a combined 49 illnesses, but neither has been linked to a named food.
The Food and Drug Administration added both investigations to its outbreak tracking table on Nov. 12. One lists 35 cases and the other 14. Both involve Salmonella Enteritidis and are marked active, with the outbreaks ongoing.
The agency has begun tracing the food supply chain in both investigations. Its table does not list a recall, inspection or sample collection for either one.
That leaves an important gap for shoppers: there is no identified product, brand or lot number to check against these two investigations. The entries do not provide the patients’ locations, ages, hospitalization numbers or death counts. Those missing details should not be read as confirmation that no severe illnesses have occurred.
Investigators are still looking for the source
The two outbreaks have separate reference numbers, 1425 for the 35-case investigation and 1427 for the 14-case investigation. The FDA’s table does not establish a common food source connecting them.
Traceback work helps investigators follow a suspected food through its distribution chain to find where contamination may have started. Beginning that work does not mean officials have proved that a particular food caused the illnesses.
The FDA says it weighs several kinds of evidence, including information about what patients ate, laboratory findings and supply-chain records. It names a food when there is enough evidence to link it to illnesses, rather than simply because investigators have looked at it.
The case totals are a snapshot, not a final count. The agency says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention supplies the outbreak case numbers, which are updated weekly and can change as investigations continue.
The FDA says it issues a public health advisory when an investigation produces specific steps consumers can take to protect themselves. People who think they have symptoms of foodborne illness should contact a health care provider and tell public health officials what they ate before becoming sick, the agency advises.
JBizNews Desk | New York
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