safer? really?

U.S. food supply safer than before, regulators say
Tue Oct 10, 2006 11:50 PM

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By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Recent food recalls, including the case of E. coli-contaminated spinach that killed three and sickened 200 people, raise questions about the safety of U.S. food, but regulators said on Tuesday the U.S. food supply is becoming safer.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans get sick every year from foodborne illnesses, 5,000 of them die and 300,000 are hospitalized.

The recent E. coli outbreak made headlines in part because it was so widespread -- with cases in 26 states and Canada -- and in part because agencies were alerted to the outbreak in "real-time" and not days or weeks later.

Consumer groups and some politicians have complained that too many different U.S. agencies oversee food safety, and this has hurt efforts to ensure that the food supply is safe.

"U.S. consumers are seeing far too many breakdowns in our country's food safety system," said Rosa DeLauro, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Connecticut.

DeLauro has called for legislation that would create a unified food safety system.

"Regrettably, food-safety responsibilities are divided among the FDA, USDA, and other agencies, with no single agency having primacy from farm to fork," the Center for Science in the Public Interest said in a statement.

Dr. Richard Raymond, under secretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the current system works well.

"If you look at the CDC data for foodborne illnesses from 1998 to 2005, in that 7-year period of time you'll see a 20 percent reduction in E. coli, a 32 percent reduction in Listeria ... and a 9 percent reduction in Salmonella," Raymond said in a telephone interview.

"Human-borne infection rates are down 30 percent across the board for the most common foodborne illnesses," he added. "That indicates to me that system as designed is working well."

WHERE DID THAT BURGER COME FROM?

Tracking down germs in food is just plain difficult, Raymond said. If a person gets sick after eating a hamburger, for instance, it is hard to know if the meat, cheese or perhaps the lettuce is to blame.

Food and Drug Administration inspectors, who worked with CDC and state officials to track the latest E. coli outbreak to a handful of California farms, noted that produce from several farms is often pooled before packaging.

One batch of contaminated lettuce could be mixed with many other batches before being packaged and quickly distributed around the country and to the rest of the world, for instance.

A contaminated river or aquifer could affect many farms and crops, and a single infected employee at a packaging plant could infect hundreds of packages.

"We just don't have the science today to guarantee that all raw meat and poultry is germ-free when it gets home and ... that cooked produce and meat will remain germ-free until you eat them. It is not zero risk and that is why cooking and handling are so important," Raymond said.

The CDC, Food and Drug Administration and the USDA all have extensive advice to consumers on how to avoid food poisoning, with recommendations on washing produce, not mixing raw meat with anything else, thoroughly cooking food and refrigerating leftovers immediately.

Most of the time, foodborne illness is mysterious and all patients know is that they have vomiting and diarrhea.

A USDA spokesman said the agency is having a meeting on ways to improve the inspection system, and the FDA said it would hold a public meeting to address the issue of contaminated leafy greens.

(With additional reporting by Maureen Lorenzetti in Washington)