ATLANTA – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled its improved online foodborne outbreak research tool complete with new interactive features, maps and search functions that can access 20 years’ worth of foodborne illness data reported to the CDC.

The Foodborne Outbreak Online Database Tool (FOOD Tool) lets users search outbreak data by state, food or pathogen. Interactive features include maps, graphs and tables that are searchable by foods and ingredients. The graphics also display “quick stats” and return case counts for multi-state outbreaks.

Resources for FOOD Tool come from the CDC’s Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (FDOSS) which captures information caused by intestinal, bacterial, viral, parasitic and chemical agents reported by state, local and territorial public health agencies. Users can search the database by year, state, location of food preparation, food and ingredient, and cause. It provides information on numbers of illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths, the germ and the cause — confirmed or suspected, CDC said.

More information about FOOD Tool is available on the CDC website.