Foodborne disease outbreaks

The suspicion of a foodborne disease outbreak exists when two or more people fall ill after eating the same food. Foodborne disease outbreaks can occur as localised events in community institutions or private households when ready-to-eat foods become contaminated through handling errors or the use of contaminated ingredients. After eating the food, this can lead to the sudden occurrence of several cases of illness. Localised foodborne outbreaks are therefore usually recognised quickly, and reported to and investigated by the responsible authorities. To support regional veterinary and food control authorities, the BfRshort forGerman Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has published guidelines for the investigation into outbreaks along the food chain.

Diffuse, supraregional foodborne outbreaks are much more difficult to recognise on the other hand. These can occur if foods are contaminated right at the beginning of the food chain during food production or processing, for example, prior to distribution and marketing over large areas. Examples of this are the EHEC outbreak in Germany in 2011 and a norovirus outbreak in eastern Germany in 2012 which occurred after the consumption of foods containing strawberries.