American's Foods Unsafe to Eat

A list of illnesses and even death caused by unsafe foods in America.

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The food industry has evolved from local to one in which production and processing are centralized in different parts of the country and world. Such large-scale "farms" and feed lots are often breeding grounds for pathogens that are further dispersed in fast-paced slaughterhouses and processing plants. Large-scale processing can easily spread germs into large volumes of processed food, especially meat.

Improved transportation has given consumers greater access to foods imported from around the world. Although the United States does not have the best international food safety and pollution controls, many countries even fall short of our regulations. This has introduced new hazards into our food supply. As our population becomes increasing vulnerable to foodborne illness, some pathogens are also becoming more virulent.

Unsafe foods cause an estimated 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths each year in the United States. Outbreaks of foodborne illness are clusters of illness that result from ingestions of a common contaminated food. A single outbreak can affect hundreds, or even thousands, of people.

When foodborne illness outbreaks do occur, the USDA and FDA must ask, rather than order, companies to recall the food. This system often delays recall and increases number of illnesses in an outbreak.

Although Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is responsible for nationwide surveillance of outbreaks and for tracking new and emerging pathogens, state and local health departments are not required by law to report foodborne illness outbreaks to the CDC. Although at least ten federal agencies have jurisdiction over some aspect of food-safety regulation:

1. USDA regulates meat, dairy, and processed egg foods.

2. FDS regulates all other foods.

3. Some multi-ingredient items contain foods regulated by USDA and FDA.

4. EPA regulates pesticide use on food or feed crops and sets maximum pesticide residue levels for the amount of the pesticide that can legally remain in or on foods.

This highly fragmented system divides regulatory responsibility primarily based on food products. Add the fact that CDC organizes outbreaks by pathogen causes rather than food carriers, and you have another federal system that does not work.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a consumer-advocacy organization supported primarily by 900,000 subscribers augmented by some foundation grants. In addition to "overseeing" government and food regulators, CSPI’s Food Safety Program publishes Outbreak Alert!, an ongoing compilation of foodborne illnesses and outbreaks, organized by food categories. Since the majority of foodborne illnesses go unreported, the following statistics represent a small proportion of the actual illnesses caused by food.

Meats led the food illnesses with 1254 foodborne illness outbreaks and 38, 760 cases from 1990 - 2003: Poultry, 476 cases; bee, 438 cases; pork, 170 cases; luncheon or other meats, 145 cases; game, 25 cases. Add seafoods with 899 outbreaks and 9,312 cases and eating flesh seems a very risky undertaking.

Then add 482 outbreaks and 16,005 cases from eggs, egg dishes, and dairy to the animal-products total plus game with 25 illness outbreaks and 182 cases, and 1297 outbreaks and 46,331 cases from prepared foods and multi-ingredient foods or meals, most of which contained some animal product, and the risk rises.

What might surprise you, though, is that produce caused a total of 554 foodborne illness outbreaks with 28,315 cases from 1990-2003. In produce-linked outbreaks, Salmonella ssp., Noroviruses, and Cyclospora spp. accounted for the majority of the cases. Salads accounted for 24% of the cases and lettuce accounted for 8%.

Pathogens can jump from animals to produce via contaminated irrigations water, direct application of inadequately processed to manure to soil, or even cross-contamination from raw meats in the kitchen. Viruses are often transferred to produce from human sources. CSPI opines, "With better farm-based controls, consumers could enjoy the benefits of raw produce with less risk of foodborne illness."

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Sources: CSPI; Satin M. Food Alert! The Ultimate Sourcebook for Food Safety; Food-related illness and death in the United Staes. Emerg Infect Dis 1999, 5(5):607-625; USDA; Surveillance for foodborne disease outbreaks - United States, 1993-1997. MMWR 2000, 49(SS01): 1-51; FDA

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