On May, 13, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that of 482 U.S. foodborne outbreaks caused by four common bacteria from 2009 to 2022, 32.2%—involving more than 3,500 sick people and 10 deaths—were linked to a food that could have undergone pathogen-neutralizing irradiation but did not.

The investigators identified foodborne disease outbreaks reported to the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) and the National Outbreak Reporting System through February 2022. The team also reviewed the literature to identify outbreaks that FDOSS didn’t capture. An outbreak was defined as at least two illnesses associated with common exposure to a food.

FDOSS listed 2,153 foodborne outbreaks caused by one of the four bacteria. Of those, 482 (22.4%) contained information on processing methods, none of which listed irradiation. A total of 155 of 482 (32.2%) foodborne outbreaks involved an irradiation-eligible food that wasn’t irradiated. The outbreaks resulted in 3,512 illnesses, 463 hospitalizations, and 10 deaths. The most common bacterial sources were chicken (52 outbreaks), beef (31), and eggs (29), which made up 72% of outbreaks tied to foods that could have been irradiated.

Campylobacter, Salmonella, Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes are among the most common bacterial foodborne pathogens causing illnesses, hospitalizations, and death in the United States and can be neutralized by irradiation at sufficient doses. The study was published in Emerging Infectious Diseases.