Foodborne illness

Foodborne illness or food poisoning is caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. Such contamination usually arises from improper handling, preparation or storage of food. Foodborne illness can also be caused by adding pesticides or medicines to food, or by accidentally consuming naturally poisonous substances like poisonous mushrooms or reef fish. Contact between food and pests, especially flies, rodents and cockroaches, is a further cause of contamination of food.

Statistics

There are every year about 76 million foodborne illnesses in the United States (26,000 cases for 100,000 inhabitants), 2 million in the United Kingdom (3,400 cases for 100,000 inhabitants) and 750,000 in France (1,210 cases for 100,000 inhabitants).

Related Topics:
United States - United Kingdom - France

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In the United States

In the United States, for 76 million foodborne illnesses (26,000 cases for 100,000 inhab.):

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• 325,000 were hospitalised (111 per 100,000 inhab.);
• 5,000 people died (1.7 per 100,000 inhab.).

Source:

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• Food safety and foodborne illness, WHO

In France

In France, for 750,000 cases (1,210 per 100,000 inhab.):

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• 70,000 people consulted in the emergency department of an hospital (113 per 100,000 inhab.);
• 113,000 people were hospitalised (24 per 100,000 inhab.);
• 400 people died (0.1 per 100,000 inhab.).

The causes of the illness (toxic factor) are:

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The causes of death by foodborne illness are:

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Source:

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• Report of the French sanitary agencies INVS/Afssa (PDF file, 192p, 660 KB, in French)
• Sumup of the report (PDF file, 5p, 60 KB, in French)