40% of Food Illness Outbreaks Are Linked to Sick Restaurant Workers

Sick restaurant and food-store workers were linked to four in 10 U.S. foodborne disease outbreaks in recent years, yet few establishments had comprehensive policies in place to prevent contamination, a government analysis found. Food workers’ illnesses may have played a role in some 200 outbreaks from 2017 through 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report. Ailing workers touching ready-to-eat food with bare hands alone was linked to 14% of cases. Other, unspecified types of contact by food workers suspected of harboring infections were linked to more than 100 cases. Roughly one in six Americans gets a foodborne disease every year, according to CDC estimates, and restaurants have long been a major source of outbreaks. Foodborne illnesses are estimated to cause upwards of 100,000 U.S. hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths annually. Norovirus, a quickly spreading infection that causes diarrhea, vomiting and other gastric symptoms, accounts for the most outbreaks, followed by salmonella bacteria, according to CDC estimates. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Read More: What to Know About Norovirus In the study, published Tuesday in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, most restaurants and food stores with outbreaks required employees to notify managers when they were ill and stopped sick employees from working. But less than a quarter had comprehensive policies for dealing with workers’ illnesses, the researchers foun...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized bloomberg wire healthscienceclimate Public Health Source Type: news