A new report from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes what we already knew just from listening to the news or reading newspaper headlines…food safety in the U.S. is no longer improving. Recent salmonella outbreaks in tainted pistachios and peanuts are just the most publicized examples.
In 2000 the U.S. government instituted the “Healthy People 2010” program which was designed to reduce the incidence of salmonella infections by half. Reaching that goal is highly unlikely. In the U.S. 76 million people suffer food-borne illnesses each year, of which 300,000 require hospitalization and 5000 die from food-related infections. Although there has been a decrease in incidence of listeria, shigella, E-coli, campylobacter and yersinia, there has been no decrease in incidence of salmonella and cryptosporidium and an actual increase in cases of vibrio.
These continued outbreaks and the apparent lack of progress in national health goals underscore the need for a total and immediate revamping of our entire food safety practices.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
