The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week released its most recent annual report (2014) for disease outbreaks in the United States.
Dairy products were associated with 19 of the outbreaks where a specific food was deemed responsible, or 9% of the total number. Of that 19, 18 reported pasteurization status, with 15 coming from unpasteurized dairy products including raw milk.
Though raw milk is just a tiny segment of milk consumed in the United States, it accounted for 83% of the dairy food-borne outbreaks. Some 267 people became ill from all dairy products, but the CDC did not report the total number ill from raw milk products.
Chicken had the most outbreaks on the meat side, with 23 outbreaks and 354 illnesses.
Beef accounted for 15 outbreaks and 152 illnesses. “Ground beef was the contaminated food or ingredient in five of the 25 multistate outbreaks. Four were caused by Shiga toxin producing E. coli and 1 by Salmonella,” states the report.
Pork accounted for 9 outbreaks and 134 illnesses.