Counterpoint: Is Clostridium difficile a food-borne disease?

Abstract

The increase in community associated Clostridium difficile disease paired with recent data on C. difficile in retail foods has led to speculation that C. difficile is a food-borne pathogen. However, there is no current epidemiologic evidence (i.e. restaurant or food-associated outbreaks) to support this hypothesis. Rates of C. difficile recovery from food vary widely across laboratories and may be due to a number of confounding factors. This commentary discusses the results of two published investigations and suggests that higher prevalence rates observed in some food studies may be due to laboratory contamination. The conclusions are that prevalence of C. difficile in retail foods is relatively low and further investigations are required to determine if C. difficile is food-borne.