How Big Brother Helps Out

Food poisoning happens on a regular basis. Food poisoning, or foodborne illness, in its simplest form is illness caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, or parasites. Contamination can occur during any portion of food production and processing, or even at home by handling and cooking food incorrectly. Usually an illness caused by contaminated food will resolve itself after a short time, but in some instances the outcome can be deadly. Every year 48 million people will suffer from some form of food poisoning. 128,000 will be hospitalized as a result of their sickness, and 3,000 will die from it. Food poisoning costs almost $15 billion each year, which includes cost of medical care and missed time from work. The most common foodborne illness pathogens are Salmonella, Norovirus, Campylobacter, and E.coli just to name a few. Salmonella and Toxoplasma gondii are the most deadly forms for foodborne illness, and are also very easy to contract.

For the most part, food poisoning can be avoided by cooking, cleaning, and storing food properly. It is important to keep raw foods separate to avoid cross-contamination. Likewise, it is equally important to cook meats and poultry to the recommended temperatures to kill any bacteria that might be in it. Proper refrigeration of foods is necessary to make sure they don’t linger in the “danger zone”. This is important during these hot summer months when food, like deviled eggs and potato salad, sit around outside all day. Many cases of Salmonella occur this way. But what happens when these contaminations occur on a much larger scale, like in a food processing facility?

For example, around 2008-2009 there was a major Salmonella outbreak linked to peanut butter. 700 people were sickened from this contamination, and 9 people died. This outbreak was linked to a peanut butter plant in Georgia, where two workers at the plant lied about the quality of their peanut butter. These two men claimed that the peanut butter was safe, without disclosing whether it had been tested for pathogens and if those tests came back positive. As a result, hundreds of people were sickened as their food safety was compromised. Luckily, we have government agencies that deal with major outbreaks like this one.

When the CDC receives information regarding a foodborne illness outbreak, its first task is to link cases of similar outbreaks from different areas of the country. They do this using various tools including FoodNet, which helps public health officials gain information about the cause and spread of foodborne illness. Another helpful tool is PulseNet, which uses DNA fingerprinting to link foodborne illness pathogens from different outbreaks. The FDA then gets involved, and issues recalls on contaminated items. The FDA also tries to find out how the contamination happened, and takes action to modify processing of foods to prevent future contaminations. The FDA developed a group called CORE (coordinated outbreak response and evaluation) to manage response to an outbreak, and monitor post-response activities related to the outbreak. In addition to handling responses, the government also regulates and inspects food production facilities to ensure that they are following guidelines for making quality food. The government may not be able to control poor employee attitudes, but it can help to keep our food safe.