CDC Updates List of Diseases Transmitted Through Food Handling

CDC is updating its list of infectious and communicable diseases that are transmitted through handling the food supply.

The contamination of raw ingredients from infected food-producing animals and cross-contamination during processing are more prevalent causes of food-borne disease than is contamination of foods by persons with infectious or contagious diseases.

However, some pathogens are frequently transmitted by food contaminated by infected persons. The presence of any one of the following signs or symptoms in persons who handle food may indicate infection by a pathogen that could be transmitted to others through handling the food supply: Diarrhea, vomiting, open skin sores, boils, fever, dark urine, or jaundice. The failure of food-handlers to wash hands (in situations such as after using the toilet, handling raw meat, cleaning spills, or carrying garbage, for example), wear clean gloves, or use clean utensils is responsible for the food-borne transmission of these pathogens. Non-food-borne routes of transmission, such as from one person to another, are also major contributors in the spread of these pathogens.

Pathogens that can cause diseases after an infected person handles food are the following:

• Noroviruses
• Hepatitis A virus
• Salmonella Typhi
• Shigella species
• Staphylococcus aureus
• Streptococcus pyogenes

Other pathogens are occasionally transmitted by infected persons who handle food, but usually cause disease when food is intrinsically contaminated or cross-contaminated during processing or preparation. Bacterial pathogens in this category often require a period of temperature abuse to permit their multiplication to an infectious dose before they will cause disease in consumers. Preventing food contact by persons who have an acute diarrheal illness will decrease the risk of transmitting the following pathogens:

• Campylobacter jejuni;
• Cryptosporidium parvum;
• Entamoeba histolytica;
• Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli;
• Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli;
• Giardia lamblia;
• Nontyphoidal Salmonella;
• Sapoviruses;
• Taenia solium;
• Vibrio cholerae;
• Yersinia enterocolitica