Estimating the burden of foodborne disease

Burden of disease is a measure that combines prevalence or incidence of health states with indices of severity, disability from long-term complications, and duration. These indices may be derived from economic value, or severity measures provided by a panel of judges (health experts or lay people). The latter approach is described in detail for the estimation of the burden of foodborne disease, caused by both microbial and chemical hazards. Attribution, where the foodborne exposures to a hazard are differentiated from other routes, remains a challenge. Although careful methodological choices must be made, the severity measures approach is being increasingly employed, notably in the World Health Organization’s initiative to estimate the global burden of foodborne disease.