A recent report has sent warning signals in the society by claiming that foodborne disease is on rise, and this time the imported foods are under the scanner. It has been claimed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is of the view that among all the foods, fish and spices were found to be those who instigated rise in foodborne disease.

Before concluding, Hannah Gould, an epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, who led the study, along with his team examined records of foodborne disease from 2005 to 2010 and found that it caused 39 outbreaks and as many as 2,348 had some or the other health concern, thereby indicating that imported foods during recent years had a major role to play in making foodborne disease a contentious issue.

“It's too early to say if the recent numbers represent a trend, but CDC officials are analyzing information from 2011 and will continue to monitor for these outbreaks in the future”, said Gould, who confirmed that the last two years had seen maximum outbreaks.

Made public at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta on 14 March, the study has caught the attention of medical community. The team is of the view that there is more need to be found out about what are the actual sources of foods that are behind the rise in so many illness cases.

It is quite normal for people to taste variety of food which comes from corners of the world, and this is triggering escalated concern for health officials as such foods could be infected by germs from other parts of the world.

There is a need for organizations like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to raise their level of investigation to track down what all is pushing foodborne disease outbreaks rate so high.