As the recent nationwide ban on Romaine lettuce by the CDC shows, harmful pathogens have become an ever-increasing threat in our food supply, causing serious illness and even death among people with weaker immune systems such as young children and older adults. In 2011, the CDC estimated that each year, roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne illness. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued approximately 95 food recalls, market withdrawals and safety alerts involving foodborne illness during 2018. That is almost 2 per week, and many have affected people in multiple states.

Stop Foodborne Illness, a national, nonprofit, public health organization dedicated to preventing illness and death from foodborne pathogens, has put together a list of things you can do to be knowledgeable about foodborne illness and help keep you and your family safe in 2019.