Salmonella infection rates in the United States held roughly steady in 2024 compared with the reference period used to track federal food safety goals. That flat line hides a substantial change in how the data are counted.
According to FoodNet's preliminary surveillance data for 2024, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on April 29, 63.8 percent of Salmonella infections in the surveillance network were diagnosed by rapid molecular panels, compared with 29.7 percent during the 2016 to 2018 reference period. The tests are faster and detect infections that older methods missed, which means a stable rate does not translate cleanly into a stable amount of illness.
