The federal Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) scaled back its monitoring of foodborne illnesses on July 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed.
FoodNet, a collaboration among the CDC, the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and 10 state health departments, had previously tracked infections from eight pathogens but is now focusing on just two, salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, according to NBC News on Tuesday, quoting a CDC source.
Surveillance for campylobacter, cyclospora, listeria, shigella, vibrio, and yersinia is no longer required.
The program’s surveillance area covers about 54 million people, or roughly 16% of the U.S. population, including Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, and parts of California and New York.
Food safety experts warn the change could slow outbreak detection and erase decades of progress.
“A lot of the work that I and many, many, many, many other people have put into improving food safety over the past 20 or 30 years is just going away,” said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University.
She called the decision “very disappointing,” adding that food safety budgets have not kept pace with inflation.
The CDC said narrowing the program allows staff to prioritize core activities while maintaining infrastructure and quality.
Internal talking points cited by NBC News attributed the change to funding that has not kept pace with the costs of tracking all pathogens. The agency requested $72 million for food safety in its 2026 budget, about the same as in prior years.
Other federal systems still collect data on the six pathogens FoodNet dropped, but most rely on states to voluntarily report cases rather than actively search for them. Experts say that makes it more difficult to detect rising trends or respond quickly to outbreaks.
States are responding differently to the changes. Maryland officials said they will continue requiring reporting of all eight pathogens, while in Colorado, officials warned that reduced funding could force cutbacks in active surveillance by 2026.
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