With increasing recognition of the role of microbial pathogens in foodborne illness, public and private-sector surveillance for foodborne pathogens has increased. In other cases, such as non-typhoidal Salmonella and Campylobacter , these pathogens were important decades earlier, but we weren't looking for them. It has been said that testing food for pathogens doesn't make food safer. In a broad sense this is untrue. Microbial testing at appropriate Critical Control Points is essential to establish, and later to verify, the effectiveness of preventive measures and critical limits, ensuring that the entire process is producing a safe end product.
People manage what they measure.
Pathogen surveillance is an essential first step in pathogen control. We have an outstanding new surveillance system for foodborne illness. The FoodNet system, a collaboration of USDA, CDC, FDA, and nine state health departments, allows us, for the first time, to know with some confidence both the burden of foodborne illness, and whether we are doing better or worse over time. And there is good news. For most of the foodborne pathogens under surveillance, the incidence of reported illness has declined just within the four years FoodNet has been in place.