Why Food Keeps Making Everybody Sick This Summer
Why Food Keeps Making Everybody Sick This Summer
为什么今年夏天食品安全问题频发，让每个人都病倒了？
This summer, every meal feels like a risk. Just as the US is recovering from a major cyclospora outbreak stemming from tainted iceberg lettuce, salmonella has turned up in jalapeños, eggs, and even dog food. The jalapeño-related outbreak is now responsible for at least 431 illnesses and 57 hospitalizations in more than two dozen states. Meanwhile, a dual-pathogen outbreak of E. coli and salmonella linked to alfalfa sprouts has affected 55 people across 15 states. 今年夏天，每一顿饭都让人感到如履薄冰。就在美国刚从源自受污染冰山生菜的环孢子虫（cyclospora）大规模疫情中恢复过来时，墨西哥辣椒、鸡蛋甚至狗粮中又相继发现了沙门氏菌。目前，与墨西哥辣椒相关的疫情已导致二十多个州至少 431 人患病，57 人住院。与此同时，一起与苜蓿芽有关的大肠杆菌和沙门氏菌双重病原体疫情，已波及 15 个州的 55 名患者。
But is it just your overactive imagination that these outbreaks are worse than normal? To answer that, WIRED tallied up publicly available numbers from the Food and Drug Administration’s investigations of foodborne illnesses. The agency has identified more than 12,800 illnesses tied to foodborne outbreaks in 2026, already far surpassing the number it has identified in any year since 2020. For comparison, there were 895 cases related to foodborne outbreaks last year. 这仅仅是你多虑了吗？觉得这些疫情比往常更严重？为了回答这个问题，《连线》（WIRED）杂志统计了美国食品药品监督管理局（FDA）关于食源性疾病调查的公开数据。该机构在 2026 年已确认了超过 12,800 例与食源性疫情相关的病例，这一数字已远超 2020 年以来的任何一年。作为对比，去年与食源性疫情相关的病例仅为 895 例。
Experts say the summer of sickness is the result of chronic underfunding in food safety systems, gaps in federal food policy, and recent cuts to the country’s public health infrastructure by President Donald Trump’s administration. 专家表示，这个“多病之夏”是食品安全系统长期资金不足、联邦食品政策漏洞，以及唐纳德·特朗普政府近期削减国家公共卫生基础设施投入的共同结果。
“What is happening this summer just demonstrates to me the vulnerabilities in the system—and what happens when you stress the system,” says Barbara Kowalcyk, director of George Washington University’s Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition. 乔治华盛顿大学食品安全与营养研究所所长芭芭拉·科瓦尔奇克（Barbara Kowalcyk）表示：“今年夏天发生的一切向我证明了该系统的脆弱性，以及当系统承受压力时会发生什么。”
To understand how this summer became so swamped with foodborne illnesses, one needs to understand the scale of the cyclospora outbreak, which “was absolutely unprecedented,” says Jennifer McEntire, a food microbiologist and founder of the consulting firm Food Safety Strategy. 要理解为什么今年夏天会陷入如此严重的食源性疾病困境，就必须了解环孢子虫疫情的规模。食品微生物学家、咨询公司“食品安全战略”（Food Safety Strategy）创始人詹妮弗·麦肯泰尔（Jennifer McEntire）称，这次疫情“绝对是史无前例的”。
The FDA’s numbers, drawn from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s case count, establish this cyclospora outbreak as the largest the agency has investigated in the US since the 1990s. Yet even this figure undercounts how many people actually got sick, according to the CDC’s own calculations. 根据美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）的病例统计，FDA 的数据显示，此次环孢子虫疫情是该机构自 20 世纪 90 年代以来在美国调查过的规模最大的一次。然而，据 CDC 自己的测算，即使是这个数字也低估了实际患病人数。
The FDA’s figures only count illnesses directly linked to a specific outbreak under investigation. So far, about 67 percent of the CDC’s 17,180 laboratory-confirmed cases in the US have been linked to Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce; the rest are linked to other outbreaks or one-off infections, which require a full-blown FDA investigation. On top of that, the CDC is aware of at least 11,844 additional cases that have either not been confirmed by a lab test or require further analysis for other reasons. FDA 的数据仅统计了与特定调查疫情直接相关的病例。到目前为止，CDC 在美国实验室确诊的 17,180 例病例中，约 67% 与 Taylor Farms 公司的冰山生菜有关；其余病例则与其他疫情或零星感染有关，这些都需要 FDA 进行全面调查。此外，CDC 还获悉至少有 11,844 例额外病例，这些病例要么尚未通过实验室检测确认，要么因其他原因需要进一步分析。
Previously, cyclospora infections were rare compared to other common foodborne bugs like salmonella and E. coli. The previously obscure pathogen typically causes a few hundred to a few thousand illnesses a year in the US. Because it is—or at least was—relatively uncommon, cyclospora isn’t included in standard panels that test for several types of gastrointestinal disease. That can mask the true size of an outbreak, on top of the many people who may have gotten diarrhea from the parasite but decided not to go to the doctor. 过去，与沙门氏菌和大肠杆菌等常见的食源性病原体相比，环孢子虫感染非常罕见。这种曾经鲜为人知的病原体在美国每年通常只会导致几百到几千人患病。由于它相对少见（或者说曾经少见），环孢子虫并未被纳入检测多种胃肠道疾病的标准筛查项目中。这不仅掩盖了疫情的真实规模，还有许多人可能因感染该寄生虫而腹泻，但选择了不去就医。
Cyclospora is also particularly tricky to get rid of, with its tendency to lodge itself into the crevices and folds of leafy greens, herbs, and berries. These foods are typically eaten raw, and food sanitizers aren’t effective at removing the parasite because it forms a tough, protective outer shell. 环孢子虫也非常难以根除，它倾向于藏匿在绿叶蔬菜、草药和浆果的缝隙和褶皱中。这些食物通常生吃，而食品消毒剂对清除这种寄生虫效果不佳，因为它会形成一层坚硬的保护性外壳。
But the quirks of a parasite cannot fully explain the scale of the outbreak. Last October, WIRED reported that the CDC had reduced its staff through layoffs and buyouts by about 3,000 employees—roughly a quarter of the workforce—since Trump’s second term began. That includes people who worked in a lab that responded to cyclospora outbreaks. According to the team’s former leader, molecular parasitologist Joel Barratt, the lab’s staff was cut from 11 people to just three. 但寄生虫的特性并不能完全解释疫情的规模。去年 10 月，《连线》报道称，自特朗普第二个任期开始以来，CDC 通过裁员和买断工龄的方式削减了约 3,000 名员工，约占其员工总数的四分之一。这其中包括在应对环孢子虫疫情实验室工作的研究人员。据该团队前负责人、分子寄生虫学家乔尔·巴拉特（Joel Barratt）称，实验室人员从 11 人缩减到了仅剩 3 人。
Fewer staff to handle outbreaks is compounded by the nation’s health agencies lacking leadership at the highest levels. The CDC was without a dedicated director for nearly a year, until the Senate voted in early August to confirm Erica Schwartz to the role. The FDA, meanwhile, has not had a permanent commissioner since Marty Makary resigned in May. 应对疫情的人手不足，再加上国家卫生机构最高层缺乏领导，情况变得更加严峻。CDC 在近一年的时间里没有专门的局长，直到 8 月初参议院投票确认埃里卡·施瓦茨（Erica Schwartz）担任该职。与此同时，自马蒂·马卡里（Marty Makary）5 月辞职以来，FDA 一直没有常任局长。
In 2025, the Trump administration cut roughly $12 billion in grants for state health departments, which are the first to respond to outbreaks of foodborne illness. In Michigan, the loss of these funds meant 23 fewer infectious disease workers and 123 fewer county health staff, Reuters reported in late July. Health department employees told Reuters they’ve had to pull staff from other areas—and still didn’t have the resources to investigate the thousands of cyclospora cases in the state that’s been at the center of the outbreak. 2025 年，特朗普政府削减了约 120 亿美元的州卫生部门拨款，而这些部门是应对食源性疾病疫情的第一线。据路透社 7 月下旬报道，在密歇根州，这笔资金的流失意味着传染病工作人员减少了 23 人，县卫生工作人员减少了 123 人。卫生部门员工告诉路透社，他们不得不从其他领域抽调人手，但即便如此，仍没有足够的资源来调查该州数以千计的环孢子虫病例，而该州正是此次疫情的中心。
Putting new food safety policies in place could help prevent large outbreaks, but a traceability rule issued by the FDA in 2022 has yet to be implemented. The rule requires businesses that manufacture, process, pack, or hold leafy greens and other high-risk foods to maintain more detailed recordkeeping. In November, Congress voted to delay implementation of the rule until July 20, 2028. A coalition of food safety and consumer health groups sent a letter to Congress earlier this month urging members to reconsider the delay, saying the rule “would facilitate faster and more effective investigations.” 实施新的食品安全政策有助于预防大规模疫情，但 FDA 于 2022 年发布的一项可追溯性规则至今尚未实施。该规则要求生产、加工、包装或储存绿叶蔬菜及其他高风险食品的企业进行更详细的记录保存。去年 11 月，国会投票决定将该规则的实施推迟至 2028 年 7 月 20 日。本月初，一个由食品安全和消费者健康团体组成的联盟致信国会，敦促议员们重新考虑这一延期决定，称该规则“将有助于进行更快速、更有效的调查”。
Even with the new rule, though, outbreaks like the one tied to Taylor Farms lettuce imported from Mexico would be hard to track due to a loophole. De Ann Davis, senior vice president of science at the Western Growers Association, which represents farmers in Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico, says the rule does not apply to importers, brokers, or trading companies that coordinate the movement of food but do not physically possess or handle it. 即便有了这项新规则，像 Taylor Farms 从墨西哥进口的生菜所引发的疫情，由于存在漏洞，依然难以追踪。代表亚利桑那州、加利福尼亚州、科罗拉多州和新墨西哥州农民的西部种植者协会（Western Growers Association）科学高级副总裁迪·安·戴维斯（De Ann Davis）表示，该规则并不适用于那些协调食品流通但不实际持有或处理食品的进口商、经纪人或贸易公司。
“In other words, the food can come in without anybody checking that it actually has the necessary traceability information,” she says. “The importer is the one who has to make sure that the food is compliant with those regulations.” “换句话说，食品可以在没有人核实其是否具备必要可追溯信息的情况下进入市场，”她说，“而进口商才是必须确保食品符合这些法规的一方。”