Abstract: Objective To analyze foodborne disease surveillance results of Guangdong in 2012 and explore the foodborne disease surveillance strategies. Methods Descriptive epidemiological method was used to analyze data collecting from active symptom surveillance of foodborne disease (including food poisoning) reports of outbreaks with two and more patients (or 1 and more deaths) from 27 hospitals in 12 cities, suspected cases of foodborne disease and abnormal health event report, and pathogen testing results of stool/anus swabs of patients with diarrhea as main symptom in the surveillance hospitals. Results A total of 96 outbreaks of foodborne diseases (including food poisoning) were reported. These outbreaks caused a reported 1 037 persons to become ill and 6 deaths. The case fatality rate was 5.8 per thousand. Food poisoning occurred mainly in the third quarter of 2012. The number of poisoning outbreaks accounted for 35.4% (34/96) of the yearly total outbreaks and the number of cases accounted for 37.1% (385/1 037) of the total number of poisoning. Restaurants, families and canteens were main places of high incidence. In total, 600 patients in 49 outbreaks were caused by microbial contamination, of which 193 patients in 17 outbreaks were caused by Vibrio parahaemolyticus and 155 patients in 11 outbreaks by Salmonella. The top four foods causing food poisoning were meat and its products (23.8%, 19/80), legumes and their products (13.8%, 11/80), seafood (10.0%, 8/80), and toadstool (10.0%, 8/80). No suspected cases of foodborne disease and abnormal health incident were reported. A total of 2 192 cases were collected, mainly concentrating from May to August, and their main symptoms were diarrhea (55.2%, 1 211/2 192), fever (28.5%, 625/2 192), and vomiting (16.4%, 360/2 192). Totally, 790 strains of Salmonella, 9 strains of Shigella and 32 strains of Vibrio parahaemolyticus were isolated from 21 358 stool/anus swabs sent by surveillance hospitals. Salmonella serotypes mainly included Typhimurium (26.1%, 206/790), Typhimurium variant (I 4,5,12:i:－) (15.6%, 123/790), Enteritidis (14.7%, 116/790), and Stanley (10.6%,84/790). Salmonella was resistant to sulfamethizole, tetracycline, ampicillin, nalidixic acid, and streptomycin, but sensitive to ceftazidime, cefotaxime, cefepime, ciprofloxacin. Nine suspected foodborne disease gathering events were found through the surveillance system, of which, one was verified as salmonella infection, and the others were unclear. Conclusion Foodborne disease (including food poisoning) in Guangdong showed seasonal fluctuations and mainly caused by microbial contamination. The surveillance of foodborne disease generally reflected foodborne disease outbreak situation in Guangdong, but the defining objects of surveillance and report quality should be improved.