FDA announces new resources related to foodborne outbreaks and investigations

On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced two new resources that will be made available after an outbreak investigation has concluded – (1) Executive Incident Summary (EIS) abstracts for closed foodborne illness investigations and (2) Foodborne Outbreak Overview of Data (FOOD) Reports.¹ The EIS abstracts provide a high-level approximately one-page overview of data collected during a foodborne illness investigation. FDA states that EIS abstracts are redacted to comply with disclosure laws, including the Trade Secrets Act and FDA regulations. The FOOD Reports provide more detailed information about “pathogen-commodity pairs” that have been linked to repeated outbreaks of foodborne illness. FDA will continually release EIS Abstracts and FOOD Reports, and states that these resources will both improve information access for consumers and better equip the agency, its partners in investigations, and industry to maintain a safe food supply.

More details follow.

EIS Abstracts for Closed Foodborne Illness Investigations

EIS abstracts are written at the conclusion of each outbreak or adverse event investigation linked to an FDA-regulated human food product, when the response phase has ended and there is no longer an ongoing risk to the public. The abstracts typically include a high-level overview of traceability, laboratory, and epidemiological information collected during the investigation. FDA states that the abstracts are redacted in accordance with the Trade Secrets Act, other disclosure laws, and FDA regulations to protect confidential commercial information, personally identifiable information, and other information that is exempt from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. EIS abstracts can be accessed on FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation (CORE) Investigation Table,²which includes all outbreaks managed by a CORE Response Team, or on the new EIS landing page.³

So far, FDA has posted EIS abstracts for outbreaks in 2025 and only lists the following four outbreaks:

The summaries are short (~one page). They identify the start, or trigger, of the investigation and explain the agency’s thinking for reaching its conclusions (e.g., “There were no indicators to formulate a hypothesis as to the source or route of contamination for this outbreak. Therefore, deli sandwich remained the suspect vehicle.”). We anticipate that the agency will only add new outbreaks going forward, as there is no suggestion from FDA that the agency plans to post outbreak summaries from prior years.

FOOD Reports

The FOOD Reports are 14–16-page presentation style reports that synthesize and summarize previously-released data associated with pathogen-commodity pairs linked to multiple outbreaks over the years. FDA states that the reports are developed to provide information that may be useful in preventing future foodborne illnesses, and that they may be used in food safety communication, training, and identification of research needs.

So far, FDA has published FOOD reports for two pathogen-commodity pairs:

The reports include highlights of historical epidemiologic data, laboratory analyses, traceability and investigational findings, and post-response prevention activities taken by the FDA, industry, academic and other federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial stakeholders. Additionally, the reports provide details on recalls, facility inspections (including issuances of Form FDA 483s), Import Alerts, and post-response actions such as education and outreach, and food safety and preventive controls. The FOOD reports also include historical scientific information on the pathogen-commodity pair.

Next Steps

Although the resources largely synthesize existing information, the EIS abstracts and FOOD Reports will make outbreak information publicly accessible in a new way, potentially bringing increased public attention even after an outbreak has ended. We will continue to monitor developments related to these resources.

Authored by Martin Hahn, Elizabeth Fawell, Maile Gradison, and Chigozie Akah.

References

1 FDA, FDA Provides Additional Transparency Around Foodborne Outbreaks and Investigations by Sharing Executive Incident Summary Abstracts for Foodborne Illnesses and Foodborne Outbreak Overview of Data Reports (Sept. 24, 2025), available at https://www.fda.gov/food/hfp-constituent-updates/fda-provides-additional-transparency-around-foodborne-outbreaks-and-investigations-sharing-executive.

2 FDA, Investigations of Foodborne Illness Outbreaks, available at https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/investigations-foodborne-illness-outbreaks.

3 FDA, Foodborne Illness Outbreak Executive Incident Summary Abstracts, https://www.fda.gov/food/outbreaks-foodborne-illness/foodborne-illness-outbreak-executive-incident-summary-abstracts.