Foodborne disease transmission decreased during COVID-19 pandemic in U.S. surveillance network

This observational surveillance report examined the incidence of infections caused by pathogens transmitted commonly through food among residents of 10 U.S. sites in the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network. The study compared transmission during the COVID-19 pandemic period (2020) to the pre-pandemic period (2017-2019).

The main finding was decreased transmission of foodborne diseases during the pandemic period compared to the pre-pandemic baseline. However, the report did not provide effect size, absolute numbers, p-values, confidence intervals, or specific pathogen-level data. The direction of change was reported as a decrease, but the magnitude remains unknown.

Safety and tolerability data were not reported. Key limitations include the observational nature of surveillance data, which shows association rather than causation. The findings are specific to 10 U.S. surveillance sites and may not generalize to other populations or settings. Practice relevance was not explicitly addressed in the report, and these findings should be interpreted as preliminary surveillance observations rather than definitive evidence of causal relationships between pandemic measures and foodborne disease transmission.