sausage charts + CDC data

For the midterm, my food data is centered around sausage. Because sausage is yummy and a little problematic.

In the CDC National Outbreak Reporting System under the “Foodborne” category, the problematic nature of sausage is very apparent. Looking up sausage rendered a lot of data, which in this case, means a lot of outbreaks after sausage consumption.

I decided to sort the data by state and the amount of illnesses related to sausage, as both of those categories had the most consistent data and large spikes, which I saw as being superlatives. It’s interesting to see the number of illnesses, as well as the states they occurred in — which speaks to the quality of the meat in each state and how the quality (or lack thereof) contributes to the high number of outbreaks. They’re all pretty high numbers just related to one kind of food, with some shooting up to 333 in Nevada. There must’ve been something seriously wrong with that pork sausage.

Most of the outbreaks happened after eating in a sit down restaurant, but many other instances actually occurred in a variety of settings — private homes, banquet facilities, and the ambiguous “Other” category. It speaks to the questionable nature of sausage and what is really in them, and if what is really in them is something you want to be eating.

The Semester Recap

Something I’m really surprised about how simple Excel is. I always thought it would be something really complicated, but my less than proficient mathematical mind is understanding how these things work. I do think I’m kind of slow when it comes to working with a lot of data; part one of the midterm took me hours to complete, and I found it quite frustrating and exhausting.

Looking at data in itself does start to make sense after a little thinking and analyzing for me. Whether or not that’s the fault of the person who created the data visualization varies, but similarly to how I feel about Excel, I am surprised that I am able to grasp these things.