Protecting families from contaminated food and water
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Protecting families from contaminated food and water
Posted in Food Safety,Our Blog on November 30, 2025
Most cases of foodborne illness in the United States go unreported. This is because many only experience mild illness. A general inconvenience. Others, on the other hand, are not so lucky.
Some groups of people are more likely to become sick if they are exposed to foodborne germs. These are also the same people who are more likely to experience more severe illness.
Unfortunately, when those who are not as strongly impacted become sick but don’t report their illness, it can take longer to track down the source of the problem. Leaving more people vulnerable for a longer period of time.
But that is a whole other topic entirely.
In this Make Food Safe Blog post we are going to point out the top germs that make people sick and, based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, how epidemiologists estimate the true impact of foodborne illness in the United States, taking into account those unreported illnesses.
Since there is a significant amount of missing data, CDC fills in the gaps with other data. Information from surveys, study results, and the use of statistical methods account for that missing data.
The most common germs responsible for foodborne illness in the United States include Campylobacter, C. perfringens, Listeria monocytogenes, Salmonella, and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC).
According to the latest estimates, these six germs are responsible for an estimated 9.9 million illnesses. These illnesses resulted in 53,300 hospitalizations and an estimated 931 deaths (including a seventh pathogen, Toxoplasma gondii)
Toxoplasma gondii is excluded from the 9.9 million illness estimate because it is not a nationally reported illness and there is too much missing data to provide contributing estimates.
So, what did they come up with?
When it comes to germs that hit the most people, five come out on top.
For serious illnesses resulting in hospitalization, rankings shuffled slightly.
When it comes to deaths caused by these foodborne germs, Salmonella came out ahead. By far!
Avoid being a statistic in the next CDC foodborne illness update by reducing your risk of becoming sick.
Of course, there are things outside of your control.
You cannot control what happens in the kitchen of a restaurant. Whether food workers report to their shifts recovering from an illness of their own. Or whether a ready-to-eat food item purchased from a grocery store has been contaminated before making it onto your kitchen table. You can’t control irrigation techniques at the farm.
But there are some things you can control.
If I had a penny every time I offered this token of advice. Well. Let’s say I’d be pretty darn rich.
This is because it is one of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from getting sick. Think about this. Everything that our hands touch, others likely touch too. Do they wash their hands after using the restroom? Do they wash their hands after handling money? How about after touching the railing on stairs, door handles, or other high contact public areas?
Guess what. All those germs can transfer. Public germs can make their way into your house with a single trip to the mall or grocery store.
Wash your hands before you eat or prepare food. Wash your hands after you use the restroom, help someone in the restroom, or change a diaper. You should also wash your hands after being around animals or their environment.
It should go without saying, but I am going to go ahead and say it. Wash all utensils and food contact surfaces after each use. This includes cutting boards, plates, etc. It is also a good idea to wipe down the counter before and after cooking.
All fruits and vegetables, even those with skin or rind that you do not intend to eat, must be washed.
Yes, this means avocado, oranges, and even melons. I said it. Even melons.
You may not be eating the rind. But if you are cutting it up, bacteria can transfer through the flesh on the knife as the blade passes through.
Keep ready-to-eat foods away from raw foods to prevent cross contamination. Always store raw meat below these foods, in cases “juices” drip.
Designated cutting boards should also use to prevent potential cross contamination. For example, you should have a separate cutting board for meat than produce.
Always cook food to a safe internal temperature. The only tried and true way to kill harmful germs in food is through heat treatment. Refer to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) safe minimum internal temperature chart to ensure food reaches the proper temperature essential to kill those germs.
Measure this temperature with an instant read food thermometer for best results.
Have you heard of the “danger zone?” If you are a regular reader of the Make Food Safe blog, I know you are well versed in it. But I would be remiss if I didn’t cover it here.
The danger zone is the temperature range between 40 °F and 140 °F. In this range, bacteria rapidly grow and replicate. In as little as 20 minutes bacteria can double in number. With another 20 minutes it doubles again. This exponential growth can take a small amount of bacteria to infectious quantities rather quickly.
Foods left in the danger zone should be discarded after two hours. If the ambient temperature is over 90 °F, this time limit drops to one hour.
Refrigerate foods right away. For best results, use shallow containers so that food can be cooled more effectively.
Even in the United States, foodborne illness is a big problem. A few mindful steps can help reduce your risk.
If you’d like to know more about food safety topics in the news, like “Six Germs are Responsible for 9.9 Million Cases of Foodborne Illness in the United States Each Year!,” check out the Make Food Safe Blog. We regularly update trending topics, foodborne infections in the news, recalls, and more! Stay tuned for quality information to help keep your family safe, while The Lange Law Firm, PLLC strives to Make Food Safe!
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)