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Is the U.S. Seeing a Surge in Foodborne Illnesses?
Epidemiologists believe it could be among the largest documented foodborne illness events in U.S. history.
“We’ve never seen anything like that before,” Hamilton says.
The volume of food affected is higher than average
While the total number of recalls has been about average, USDA-regulated recalls affected more than 37 million pounds of food during the first half of 2026—the highest it has been in a decade.
At the same time, epidemiologist and former CDC adviser Katelyn Jetelina says that it’s very hard to tell just how bad this summer’s outbreaks have been—and our lack of federal data does not help.
“Our data is just not great in the United States,” she tells TIME. “We’re patching things together to try to figure out what is reality versus concern and public perception, and it’s hard to know where the line is.”
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