An Updated Scheme for Categorizing Foods Implicated in Foodborne Disease Outbreaks: A Tri-Agency Collaboration

Area of Science:

• Food safety
• Public health
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Current food categories used for foodborne disease surveillance lack specificity regarding processing and exclude multi-ingredient foods.
• This limits accurate attribution of illnesses to specific food sources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a hierarchical food categorization scheme for improved foodborne illness source attribution.
• To create more specific food categories that account for processing and multi-ingredient foods.

Main Methods:

• The Interagency Food Safety Analytics Collaboration (IFSAC) developed a five-level hierarchical food categorization scheme.
• Standard assumptions were created for assigning foods, including multi-ingredient items, to categories.
• Outbreaks (1998-2014) were analyzed for assignability to the new scheme.

Main Results:

• The IFSAC scheme includes 234 specific food categories.
• Of 9,791 outbreaks with identified food vehicles, 4,607 (47%) were assignable to the scheme.
• A significant portion (92%) were assigned to 24 aggregate categories, with 18% assigned to the most specific level.

Conclusions:

• The enhanced specificity of the IFSAC scheme can improve foodborne illness source attribution.
• This improved attribution can lead to better food safety practices and regulatory actions.