WASHINGTON—The Centers for Disease Control reports that roughly one in six people in the United States gets sick every year from eating contaminated food. In recent years, consumers have become ill from products like ground beef, peppers, peanut butter, spinach, eggs, cookie dough, cantaloupe, and most recently in October, romaine lettuce (apparently).
The total number of illnesses annually from foodborne contaminates results in an estimated 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths.
The CDC says that each year, 1 million people get sick from food contaminated by salmonella.
In recent years, E. coli has been found most notably in meat and spinach. The bacterial strain E. coli O157:H7 causes diarrhea, abdominal pain, and fever for nearly 63,000 Americans each year. In a small percentage of the population, the complication known as the hemolytic uremic syndrome can arise causing intense pain, severe anemia, kidney failure, and even death, according to several medical sources.
No single U.S. federal agency has total responsibility for preventing, detecting, and responding to threats to our food supply. The brunt of it falls on the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA). These two departments head the Food Safety Working Group (FSWG), created by President Obama in March 2009, with the task of coordinating federal agencies to improve food safety.
“We are well on our way to building a modern food safety system,” said Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, at a telebriefing on a two-year progress report of the FSWG Dec. 21.
Secretary Sebelius was joined by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack; together they co-chair the FSWG.
Much of the federal government has a stake in the protection of our food supply, such as the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Commerce, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. But the FSWG agencies on the frontlines in prevention, detection, regulation, and quick response are HHS’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS).
Sebelius said it’s a big challenge because 50 years ago most food consumed by Americans originated in the United States; now 15 percent of the food supply is imported. In some categories, imports play a key role: seafood is 75–80 percent imported; fresh fruit is about 50 percent; and vegetables are at about 20 percent.
Vilsack underscored the dynamic nature of the U.S. food safety protection system. “We need to rapidly identify and address risks to our food supply that are a result from our testing new disease agents we find, new technologies being adopted … and an abundance of food imports that are the result of a significant globalized food supply.”
Prevention
With a million people each year sickened, salmonella prevention became a top priority of FSWG agencies soon after it was established. In July 2009, the FDA issued an egg safety rule in the production, storage, and transport of shell eggs. Up until then, there was no standard on preventing egg contamination.
Sebelius said the egg safety rule, which went into effect July 2010, prevents an estimated 79,000 illnesses every year and saves nearly $1 billion in health care costs and costs to the industry. By the end of 2011, the FDA will have inspected 600 of the largest egg producers, accounting for 80 percent of the U.S. egg supply.
In addition, the FDA is taking action on reducing the presence of salmonella in animal feed. FSIS is applying stricter standards for salmonella pathogen reduction in young chicken (boiler) and turkey slaughter establishments.
The FSIS has created a voluntary program that allows some raw meat and poultry products establishments to try out innovative methods. The establishments will test for common foodborne pathogens like salmonella and E. coli and share data with the agency. The aim is to see if industry can find the pathogens earlier and eliminate them before the products reach consumers.
At the briefing, Secretary Vilsack announced that FSIS has discovered six additional types of E. coli (non-O157) as adulterants in raw ground beef and tenderized steaks. The FSIS has begun a testing program to detect these pathogens and prevent the products contaminated from being sold to consumers.
Dr. Elisabeth Hagen, USDA undersecretary for Food Safety, amplified on Vilsack’s announcement, saying that now all testing of meat, such as beef or poultry, is routine regulatory testing—not testing only suspect meat.
Vilsack said, “It adds another layer of protection.”
Rapid Response
The CDC has been collaborating with state and local public officials to set up a surveillance network, which detects outbreaks, estimates illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths; determines foods causing the illness; and assesses whether control measures are working.
According to the report, in August 2010 the CDC expanded FoodCORE (Foodborne Diseases Centers for Outbreak Response Enhancement) to seven sites, which played a “critical role in the rapid containment of several recent outbreaks, including E. coli O157 [contaminating] hazelnuts, and salmonella in Lebanon bologna, chicken livers, and queso fresco.”
The CDC tracks foodborne illness hospitalizations and deaths in the United States—data indispensable for policy and research in food safety. In January 2011, CDC published updated estimates of the above.
“In June 2011, CDC published the FoodNet annual report card on food safety in the United States, showing that E. coli O0157 infections have been reduced, but salmonella infections have not declined in 15 years,” says the FSWG report.
The FDA developed and is improving a computer-based tool for examining imported food shipments that “enables [the] FDA to screen 10 million import entries of food commodities entering the U.S. annually. It identifies imports most likely to pose a food safety risk.”
Congress has mandated that imported food meet the same standards as domestically produced food.
Having a highly complex and decentralized food supply system makes eradicating foodborne illnesses impossible, but the government is working to develop an effective and quick response to an outbreak, once detected. A key to a more effective response to outbreaks is quicker communication and coordination among federal, state, and local health departments “to coordinate aggressive and rapid investigations.”
These investigations have led to large recalls, including the outbreak of salmonella infections in 2010, resulting in the recall of half a billion eggs, frozen microwaveable dinners, mamey fruit pulp, Gouda cheese, and the discovery of a new pathogen, which was linked to shredded lettuce.
The word voluntary was removed from recall communications so that consumers will be less likely to think that a recall is not serious.
To enhance public consciousness on food safety, CDC, FDA and FSIS broadened and updated the food safety website, “www.foodsafety.gov” in September 2009. It provides “a mechanism for rapid information dissemination and alerts to consumers about food recalls,” says the report.
