Abstract: With the improvement of living standard,issues on food safety are drawing a growing concern worldwide. In regards to all food safety incidents in the world,those caused by foodborne pathogens are becoming highlighted due to their universality,frequency and severe pathogenicity. This article is organized in the following order：First it gives an overview of the characteristics of foodborne pathogens and their connections with food safety by several historic food safety incidents;then it takes the outbreak of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli（EHEC）infection in Germany,2011 as a case,introducing pathogenic characteristics,detection techniques,tracing methods of foodborne pathogens in detail,and summarizing control measures and guides to government and consumer response. At last,based on the case,the article discusses the possibilities of its role both played in teaching and popularization in science. In sum,this article gives multi-angle analysis on the case,aiming at promoting effect on the disposal and warning of foodborne pathogenic food safety accident.

Key words: food safety, foodborne pathogen, Germany, enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli, caution, case