Lessons Learned From Dangerous Foods

A spate of safety concerns has hit the food industry this fall, leading to a heightened awareness of food across a wide swath of the country: from kitchens to factories to laboratories to legislative offices, and everywhere in between. Add to that the normal background noise of how certain foods and ingredients are killing the population in droves—which, depending on who you talk to, includes meat, carbs, gluten, processed foods, artificial ingredients, salt, high fat, low fat, sugar or just some sugars, trans fats, saturated fats, fats in general, Monsanto, GMOs , conventionally grown foods, pasteurized beverages, foods grown on “factory farms” and assorted ingredients 75% of the population can’t pronounce.

While I’ve seen some hypothetical figures generated for certain things, such as “nutritionists at Harvard have concluded that trans fat could be responsible for as many as 30,000 premature coronary deaths per year,” the reality is foodborne illness (Oct. 25, 2011--Cantaloupe toll rises to 133 sick and 26 dead, CDC says) and accidental or deliberate toxin contamination (Sept. 22, 2011--A free school lunch apparently contaminated with rat poison kills three Peruvian children and leaves dozens more seriously ill…) is more likely to kill someone than anything else. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 9.4 million illnesses and more than 3,100 deaths should be attributed to the 31 known pathogens each year. The most deadly? Salmonella, Toxoplasma and Listeria.

Is the processed food industry to blame? Well, yes and no. Modern, large-scale processing has a tendency to spread the bacterial wealth, and some say large-scale animal husbandry is a factor. On the other hand, CDC data says about 70% of all foodborne illness outbreaks occur in foodservice operations (restaurants/resorts/hotels, daycare centers/schools, nursing homes and private gatherings) and about 20% are traced to homes. (I told you not to put the cooked burgers on the same plate you used to take the raw ones to the grill!) Illness from unknown origin racks up 7%, and food processors 3%. While that 3% is still too high, it certainly indicates most of the industry is exercising due diligence when it comes to food safety.

When I read about these outbreaks, some of the comments just leave me shaking my head. It sounds like a bunch of medieval peasants trying to explain why the sun went dark during an eclipse—blame your favorite boogeyman. Regarding the cantaloupe outbreak, a number of solutions were floated, including: family farms (the contamination originated on a 4^th generation family farm that had a yearly crop equal to what California ships in a day); local (the highest number of cases so far is in Colorado, where the farm is located); organic (the farm used no pesticides and some organic fertilizer); disband the FDA … and more useless suggestions. If the subject wasn’t so serious, it would be funny.

The take-away lesson is: Never relax your vigilance when it comes to food safety, and never, never think it can’t happen to you. Remember when we all thought peanut butter was safe?

   -Lynn A. Kuntz