Foodborne Illness Research

Last week, the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative awarded 24 grants to studies focused on understanding and preventing foodborne illness. “These grants support the development of a more complete understanding of the sources and implications of microbial contamination and will promote the adoption of new food safety strategies and technologies,” says USDA Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics Catherine Woteki. The grants were awarded to studies attempting to understand how E. coli is transferred to humans and how tree-nut allergies manifest, among others.