The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will take part in a collaborative effort to create a public database that will contain 100,000 foodborne pathogen genomes to help facilitate the identification of those responsible for outbreaks involving bacteria such as Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli. Called “The 100K Genome Project,” the undertaking will apparently be a five-year genetic sequencing program openly accessible to researchers and others helping to develop tests that would identify the type of bacteria present in a sample within days or hours. According to one project participant, “Each year in the United States there are more than 48 million cases of foodborne illness. A problem of this magnitude demands an equally large countermeasure.” See FDA News Release, July 12, 2012.