Essential Food Safety Facts

Interest in reining in foodborne illnesses is at an all time high, particularly with the reoccurring, high-profile cases seen in the last several years. It’s receiving attention at the highest level with President Obama’s creation of a new Food Safety Working Group chaired by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsac whose stated mission is “to advise him on how to upgrade U.S. food safety laws for the 21st century, foster coordination of food safety efforts throughout the government, and ensure laws are being adequately enforced to keep the American people safe from foodborne illness.” Congress is working on new food-safety legislation this week which is eventually expected to pass.

But in all the discussions, we’re missing something important according to Cindy Hazen, food science and quality professional, contributing editor of Food Product Design and a founding member of a new group, The Association for Food Illness Accountability. 

   -Lynn A. Kuntz

Figures lie and liars figure, food safety is too important for speculation

Rep. John Dingell’s Food Safety Enhancement Act, HR 2749, is heading to the House floor for debate this week. I think everyone, whether in their role as consumer or food industry professional, agrees food safety is our common goal.

There’s a key point missing in the discussion. Our political leaders, the media and the CDC are quoting statistics from a 1999 report Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States. The problem is, these are estimations that are hundreds of times higher than reported cases. The CDC’s website will tell you an estimated 76 million cases of foodborne disease occur each year in the United States. CDC estimates there are 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths.

Here’s the contradiction. CDC reports 17,883 laboratory-confirmed cases of food illness infection in FoodNet surveillance areas for 2006.

FoodNet (CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network) has been in place since 1996. This system monitors nine foodborne diseases across ten states representing oversight of 45 million Americans, or roughly 15% of our population. Statistically, this is a sound pool and one we should be developing confidence in.

Based on more than a decade of FoodNet data, foodborne illness data remains relatively stable. What’s more, the CDC reports substantial declines in leading causes of illness (Campylobacter, Listeria, Shigella, E.coli, and Yersinia). Cases of Salmonella and Cryptosporidium are nearly unchanged, although not nearly approaching the nation’s healthy target initiative. Only cases caused by Vibrio have increased substantially.

This is not to say that food safety shouldn’t be a priority. However, these inconsistencies between estimated and reported data imply that twenty-five percent of Americans fall ill each year from foodborne illness while a tenth of one percent of these cases are actually being reported. This suggests an unaccountable death toll that exceeds the loss on 9/11. Hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations are falling through the cracks.

I’m not saying the CDC’s ten-year old estimates are wrong, but I have to ask, why are we using outdated numbers without questioning how to better correlate data? Clearly, no one knows how many cases of foodborne illness occur each year. Without knowing where, when or how many cases, how can we enact legislation that will cure the problem? I fear the public is being misled, because while our federal government is assuring us that food will be safe to eat, they cannot protect us from contamination in locally inspected restaurants, by sloppy home cooks or by shoppers who manhandle a bin of produce before picking one piece of ripe fruit.

The Association for Food Illness Accountability is newly organized to call for the use of accurate data as the means for measuring the country's progress against foodborne illness. Let’s shift the discussion from ten-year-old estimates to current reports. It’s not enough to say we know it’s a problem but we have to guess at the magnitude because most people don’t report it. Consumers deserve to base their food choices on truth rather than guesswork. The food industry warrants accurate, timely information to achieve optimum safety. That is everyone’s goal.

   -Cindy Hazen