Food Protection Trends - April 2009 - (Page 206) FIGURE 2. Foodborne illness outbreaks associated with Mexican foods from 1990 to 2006, separated by year and categorized as either known etiology or unknown etiology FIGURE 3. Most prevalent known etiologies associated with Mexican food outbreaks (1990–2006) www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/outbreak_data.htm) (3). The outbreak data were current as of April 2008. As previously described, ethnic cuisines were grouped into three major categories: Italian, Asian and Mexican (6, 17). Additional data related to Mexican cuisine was also extracted from a previous publication (17) and analyzed separately. The researchers used the book Food Culture in Mexico (7) to confirm that food items in question were in fact Mexican-style. The combined data for Mexican cuisine (1990–2006) were processed and ranked on the basis of number of outbreaks, etiology, outbreak location, and outbreak vehicle. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The CDC received a total of 15,997 reports of foodborne illness outbreaks, with 349,083 illness cases, in the US from 1990 to 2006. Mexican foods were associated with 560 of these foodborne illness outbreaks (18,581 illness cases), representing about 3.5% of total foodborne illness outbreaks reported during this 16-year period; these outbreaks occurred in 43 states. The median size of Mexican The objective of this study was to examine the CDC foodborne illness data for Mexican foods for the period from 1990–2006 in order to better understand food safety trends for the most popular ethnic cuisine in the US. MATERIALS AND METHODS Foodborne illness data (1990–2006) from the CDC were obtained and used as the primary compilation source for outbreaks related to Mexican foods (http:// 206 FOOD PROTECTION TRENDS | APRIL 2009 http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/outbreak_data.htm http://www.cdc.gov/foodborneoutbreaks/outbreak_data.htm
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