In 1963, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and all state health departments joined together to establish the Salmonella Surveillance Program.

National Salmonella surveillance data are collected through passive surveillance of laboratory-confirmed human Salmonella isolates. Clinical diagnostic laboratories submit Salmonella isolates to state and territorial public health laboratories, where they are confirmed and serotyped according to the Kauffmann-White scheme.

Foodborne Disease Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet) is a sentinel surveillance system that includes 10 participating state health departments in the United States working in collaboration with CDC, USDA, and FDA. The FoodNet surveillance area includes 46 million persons, which is 15% of the US population.

Today, many surveillance systems are used in the United States to provide information about the occurrence of foodborne disease.

Most of CDC’s surveillance systems rely on data from state and local health agencies. Some focus on specific pathogens likely to be transmitted through food and have been used extensively for decades.