About how many people die of foodborne illness in the United States each year?

• A. 1,000
• B. 3,000
• C. 10,000
• D. 100,000

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is understanding the scale of mortality from foodborne illness in the United States, which is estimated from surveillance and attribution data rather than a precise headcount. The best-supported figure is about 3,000 deaths each year. This estimate comes from public health analyses that combine outbreak reports, laboratory-confirmed cases, hospital records, and death data to attribute fatalities to foodborne sources, while recognizing that many cases and deaths go undiagnosed or are not linked to a specific food exposure. It underscores why food safety measures are prioritized: even though many illnesses occur, fatalities remain a relatively small but significant toll, concentrated in high-risk groups and linked to a range of pathogens. Numbers much smaller would understate the burden, while much larger figures aren’t supported by current surveillance and attribution methods.