(Wired) – 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.

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. (Read More)