TBH, something looks off with the underlying data. Probably one of those questions where you need to look into what is driving shifts in terms of reporting, definitions, and coverage.
A lot of voluntarily submitted federal data can’t be used to make aggregate estimates; in this case aggregate FDA complaints may not correlate to actual events. Often the choice to report is as important, or more so, then changes in underlying quantities.
Hey my grandpa died in that wave
There was a sale on Werther’s Originals.
The years Grandmas everywhere discovered deepthroat porn.
People heard how David Carradine died and thought they’d try it out
Could it be more ppl reporting?
How much is that as % of all reports?
regardless of other issues with the dataset… it starts in 2004 what the hell are you doing with that axis
That’s why they discontinued the transparent life-savers at the end of 2014.
Yeah I was busy for awhile. Some of them enjoyed it.
That was about the time that Obama wore the tan suit. It might be a correlation and not causation, but if I remember my uncle’s Facebook posts correctly, I doubt it.
Why was there so much diarrhea in 2022? COVID symptom maybe?
Could it be the food trends of the time? A lot of small desserts (cake pops, macarons, etc) became popular in the 2010s. Also the deconstructed food and not using plates (shoutout to r/WeWantPlates !)… could these trendy new “food formats” have caused the spike?
What year was Matlock taken off the air?
Could be a post-viral issue, lingering effects from 09-11 H1N1 pandemic
I thought this was seniors being attacked by people choking them. Not choking on food.
Maybe when a new generation acquired cell phones
Two observations:
1) The largest ever jump in U.S. births in absolute terms was between 1945 and 1946, with an increase of about 20% births. 2011 would be the first year a baby boomer would turn 65 and enter the criteria for reporting on this age group. But your data set definitely shows a much larger percentage jump in the number of events, so it might also be something else.
2) There were major changes to FDA reporting with 2 pieces of legislation passed in mid-2000’s that would have seen implementation begin in phases from 2009 onwards. It’s possible some change in medical event collection did something as mundane add a question to a form that all Medicare recipients would have to answer to their medical professional.
![[OC] There is a huge spike in reported choking events for seniors between 2010-2015.](https://www.europesays.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/9fl659eq5tsf1-1920x853.png)
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Source: [https://open.fda.gov/apis/food/event/](https://open.fda.gov/apis/food/event/)
Tool: matplotlib
Cinnamon challenge correlation or causation?
TBH, something looks off with the underlying data. Probably one of those questions where you need to look into what is driving shifts in terms of reporting, definitions, and coverage.
A lot of voluntarily submitted federal data can’t be used to make aggregate estimates; in this case aggregate FDA complaints may not correlate to actual events. Often the choice to report is as important, or more so, then changes in underlying quantities.
Hey my grandpa died in that wave
There was a sale on Werther’s Originals.
The years Grandmas everywhere discovered deepthroat porn.
People heard how David Carradine died and thought they’d try it out
Could it be more ppl reporting?
How much is that as % of all reports?
regardless of other issues with the dataset… it starts in 2004 what the hell are you doing with that axis
That’s why they discontinued the transparent life-savers at the end of 2014.
Yeah I was busy for awhile. Some of them enjoyed it.
That was about the time that Obama wore the tan suit. It might be a correlation and not causation, but if I remember my uncle’s Facebook posts correctly, I doubt it.
https://preview.redd.it/dax0wukgdtsf1.png?width=1400&format=png&auto=webp&s=b05581ee7a7b3d682be2e69e170d6707fbcf136e
Coincidence? I think not
Why was there so much diarrhea in 2022? COVID symptom maybe?
Could it be the food trends of the time? A lot of small desserts (cake pops, macarons, etc) became popular in the 2010s. Also the deconstructed food and not using plates (shoutout to r/WeWantPlates !)… could these trendy new “food formats” have caused the spike?
What year was Matlock taken off the air?
Could be a post-viral issue, lingering effects from 09-11 H1N1 pandemic
I thought this was seniors being attacked by people choking them. Not choking on food.
Maybe when a new generation acquired cell phones
Two observations:
1) The largest ever jump in U.S. births in absolute terms was between 1945 and 1946, with an increase of about 20% births. 2011 would be the first year a baby boomer would turn 65 and enter the criteria for reporting on this age group. But your data set definitely shows a much larger percentage jump in the number of events, so it might also be something else.
2) There were major changes to FDA reporting with 2 pieces of legislation passed in mid-2000’s that would have seen implementation begin in phases from 2009 onwards. It’s possible some change in medical event collection did something as mundane add a question to a form that all Medicare recipients would have to answer to their medical professional.
Correlation does not equal causation, I know.
but
[the timeline of Choking events coincidentally lines up with the peak times of nutella’s popularity in Google trends.](https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=nutella&hl=en)
Food for thought.
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