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...estimate of cost is well above previous calculations of the impact of food-safety problems, and the new study suggests that foodborne illness will continue to take an increasing toll on public health if the nation's frayed food-safety net is not repaired. President Barack Obama called for new food-safety regulations a year ago, and the House of Representatives passed a bill to overhaul the system last July. The onus now is on the Senate, which is still waiting to act. "This study underlines how important this battle is," says Jim O'Hara, director of the Produce Safety...
Previous reports have pegged the total cost of foodborne illness at between $6.9 billion and $35 billion, based on past estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But those numbers are almost surely based on serious undercounting. Most cases of foodborne illness are never officially reported - for every one case of E. coli that goes into the books, another 20 are undocumented. What's more, the FDA and USDA focus on just a handful of reportable pathogens: E. coli, campylobacter, salmonella and listeria, which excludes the many cases of food poisoning for which...
Despite the headlines generated by food scares and outbreaks of contaminants - such as the salmonella outbreak that led to a massive recall of peanut products beginning in January 2009 - food safety rarely gets the attention it deserves. That's partially because the food-safety system in the U.S. is impenetrably complex; some 15 federal agencies are responsible for keeping the nation's food supply safe, which means that oversight in many cases falls through the gaps between the FDA, CDC and USDA. The USDA, for instance, is responsible for the safety of meat and poultry; the FDA handles other cases...
Meanwhile, the food system itself has grown more complex. Bagged salad, for instance, which has proven to be a persistent risk for contamination, can include produce from several different farms, which makes it difficult to trace outbreaks of illness to their source. Our food system is 21st century, but our government's food-safety system is stuck in the 1900s...
Public-health officials and legislators hope that reports like this one, which can put a dollar figure on the pain and suffering caused by foodborne illness, may help prompt change. Late last year, the Committee on Health, Education Labor and Pensions unanimously approved the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, which is currently in front of the Senate. "It's our job to go to war against foodborne illness," says DeLauro. "We can't afford to wait." At $152 billion a year, the meter is running...