One in Six Americans Get Sick from Food Poisoning Each Year: CDC

One in six Americans -- about 48 million people -- get sick from a food-borne illness each year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control said in new estimates released yesterday (Wednesday, Dec. 15).

Another 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die every year from tainted food, CDC said. The agency published its data in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. of the 48 million who are sickened, 9.4 million cases can be linked to 31 food-borne pathogens -- the CDC didn't have enough information on the rest of the illnesses to pinpoint their causes. The agency looked at data mostly from the years 2000 to 2008, with all the estimates based on the US population in 2006 - at 299 million that year.