Foodborne Illness and Food Supply Safety in the United States

In a civilized and wealthy country, one would think that foodborne illness and food supply safety would not be a major issue for the average citizen. Unfortunately, the lack of food supply safety in this country leads to literally millions of illnesses and thousands of deaths in the United States each year. The vast majority of these foodborne illnesses are preventable.

5000 Deaths Annually from Foodborne Illness

According to statistics compiled by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), there are roughly 76 million cases of foodborne illness in the United States each year. When you consider that the total US population is only a little over 307 million, the number of people who fall victim t the lack of food supply safety each year is staggering. While many of those illnesses turn out to be relatively minor, 325,000 of them result in hospitalizations, and, the CDC says, 5000 Americans die from foodborne illnesses each year.

Most Foodborne Illness Goes Unreported

Foodborne illness include illnesses caused by pathogens such as Salmonella, as well as toxic substances such as heavy metals or other industrial chemicals that are present in our foods due to poor food supply safety practices by food producers, distributors, retailers, or even by consumers themselves. Many foodborne illnesses go undiagnosed and unreported, because the victims either don't know that the illness was caused by the food they ate, or the illness wasn't serious enough to require hospitalization.

Most of the foodborne illnesses and deaths in the United States never make the national news because they are related to one regional source. Others like the Serrano pepper salmonella outbreak of 2008, make headlines because the foods involved are distributed all across the nation and hundreds or thousands of people become seriously ill as a result.

Recommended Steps to Prevent Foodborne Illness

Proper handling of foods and adherence to accepted food supply safety practices from farm to kitchen table can prevent almost all of the foodborne illnesses and deaths in the United States each year. Unfortunately, many companies are either careless in their food safety practices, or they sacrifice caution for higher profits.

Most pathogens responsible for foodborne illness can be destroyed by proper cooking. Many of the steps suggested by the North Dakota State University Extension Service to avoid foodborne illness are just plain common sense, such as washing fruit well before eating it and cooking meats to the proper internal temperatures (160 degrees for ground meat and 165 degrees for poultry). Others are a little less obvious: don't reuse marinade after it has been in contact with raw meat, use a separate cutting board and knives for raw meats and other foods, avoid canned foods that are dented, cracked or bulging.

More Food Supply Safety Issues

Industrial chemicals, choking hazards, and other hazardous foreign materials in processed foods, however, can be more difficult or even impossible to avoid. Cooking from scratch and avoiding foods that are produced in industrial factories or large scale production farms can help. The best advice is to grow your own fruits and vegetables or buy them from a local farmer where you can actually visit the farm and see the procedures used to ensure the safety of the food you're buying. Raising backyard chickens for eggs and meat is another way to control what gets into your food supply.

Getting Closer to the Source to Increase Food Supply Safety and Prevent Foodborne Illness

The farther we are away from the source of the foods we eat, the greater the chances for it to pick up some pathogens or other contamination somewhere along the way. While we can use good practices to reduce the safety risk to our food supply, that's a defensive battle. By taking control over our food by growing it ourselves or buying local produce, we can take the offensive and prevent foodborne illnesses altogether.

Sources:

Paul S. Mead, Laurence Slutsker, Vance Dietz, Linda F. McCaig, Joseph S. Bresee, Craig Shapiro, Patricia M. Griffin, and Robert V. Tauxe. "Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol5no5/mead.htm on September 28, 2009.

"Avoid Foodborne Illness With Proper Food Handling." North Dakota Stae University Extension Service. Retrieved from www.ag.ndsu.edu/news/newsreleases/2009/june-22-2009/avoid-foodborne-illness-with-proper-food-handling/ on September 28, 2009