U.S. Not Making Ground in Stemming Number of Contaminated Food Outbreaks; More Work is Needed to Reduce Food Poisoning

In new findings that shine a light on glaring problems with the nation’s current food safety system and the need for major changes to protect consumers, government health officials admit they have made little progress in stopping outbreaks of foodborne infections.

There were just as many infections linked to contaminated food reported in 2008 as in the previous three years as the nation has fallen short of goals to reduce the numbers of infections linked to pathogens in food, officials said.

The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention say “progress toward the national health objectives has plateaued, suggesting that fundamental problems with bacterial and parasitic contamination are not being resolved.”

Rates of Foodborne Infections Unchanged

The rate of infections caused by a variety of foodborne bacteria, including Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Listeria, Shiga toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, Salmonella, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia did not change significantly when compared with the previous three years, the CDC said.

Most infections leading to food poisoning cases were reported in children under 4, while infections severe enough to require hospitalization were most often in people over age 50, according to federal officials.

Children and the elderly are among the most vulnerable to developing life-threatening infections from foodborne bacteria, which only cause mild discomfort such as vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea in most healthy people.

New Data Shows Real Problems With Food-Safety System

The CDC said a monitoring system that covers just about 15 percent of the U.S. population living in 10 states found there were 18,449 confirmed cases of food poisoning in 2008. The CDC’s FoodNet tracking system collects data from certain states about foodborne illnesses reported.

Nationwide, officials have said food poisoning is blamed for sickening millions of Americans and contributing to as many as 5,000 deaths.

Peanut Salmonella Outbreak Only Partially Included

The outbreak of peanuts and peanut butter contaminated with salmonella, which broke in late 2008 and continues into 2009, was only partially covered by the new CDC infection numbers. The outbreak began in September 2008 but many reports of injuries and deaths linked to tainted foods did not come in until January 2009 or later. So only the first wave of peanut-salmonella illnesses and deaths were included in the CDC’s tally for 2008.

More Evidence That Change is Needed

President Barack Obama and other leaders have made it a point of saying that they intend to carry out a major overhaul of the Food and Drug Administration and other agencies charged with protecting the nation’s food supply. The most recent CDC findings that the current system is not reducing the number of food poisoning cases is just more evidence that big changes are needed.

Whether it is carving out a new federal agency to oversee food safety or more aggressive response to initial reports of contaminated food as we are now seeing with potentially contaminated pistachios, more has to be done to protect American consumers from food poisoning.

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