Foodborne Illness : FAQ, Part 7

by CDC

(Page 7 of 7)

There is only so much the consumer can do. How can food be made safer in the first place?

Making food safe in the first place is a major effort, involving the farm and fishery, the production plant or factory, and many other points from the farm to the table. Many different groups in public health, industry, regulatory agencies, and academia have roles to play in making the food supply less contaminated. Consumers can promote general food safety with their dollars, by purchasing foods that have been processed for safety. For example, milk pasteurization was a major advance in food safety that was developed 100 years ago. Buying pasteurized milk rather than raw unpasteurized milk still prevents an enormous number of foodborne diseases every day. Now juice pasteurization is a recent important step forward that prevents E. coli O157:H7 infections and many other diseases. Consumers can look for and buy pasteurized fruit juices and ciders. In the future, meat and other foods will be available that has been treated for safety with irradiation. These new technologies are likely to be as important a step forward as the pasteurization of milk.

Foodborne diseases are largely preventable, though there is no simple one-step prevention measure like a vaccine. Instead, measures are needed to prevent or limit contamination all the way from farm to table. A variety of good agricultural and manufacturing practices can reduce the spread of microbes among animals and prevent the contamination of foods. Careful review of the whole food production process can identify the principal hazards, and the control points where contamination can be prevented, limited, or eliminated. A formal method for evaluating the control of risk in foods exists is called the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point, or HACCP system. This was first developed by NASA to make sure that the food eaten by astronauts was safe. HACCP safety principles are now being applied to an increasing spectrum of foods, including meat, poultry, and seafood.

For some particularly risky foods, even the most careful hygiene and sanitation are insufficient to prevent contamination, and a definitive microbe-killing step must be included in the process. For example, early in the century, large botulism outbreaks occurred when canned foods were cooked insufficiently to kill the botulism spores. After research was done to find out exactly how much heat was needed to kill the spores, the canning industry and the government regulators went to great lengths to be sure every can was sufficiently cooked. As a result, botulism related to commercial canned foods has disappeared in this country. Similarly the introduction of careful pasteurization of milk eliminated a large number of milk-borne diseases. This occurred after sanitation in dairies had already reached a high level. In the future, other foods can be made much safer by new pasteurizing technologies, such as in-shell pasteurization of eggs, and irradiation of ground beef. Just as with milk, these new technologies should be implemented in addition to good sanitation, not as a replacement for it.

In the end, it is up to the consumer to demand a safe food supply; up to industry to produce it; up to researchers to develop better ways of doing so; and up to government to see that it happens, to make sure it works and to identify problems still in need of solutions.

What is CDC doing to control and prevent foodborne disease?

CDC is part of the U. S. Public Health Service, with a mission to use the best scientific information to monitor, investigate, control and prevent public health problems. Using the tools of epidemiology and laboratory science, CDC provides scientific assessment of public health threats. CDC works closely with state health departments to monitor the frequency of specific diseases and conducts national surveillance for them. CDC provides expert epidemiologic and microbiologic consultation to health departments and other federal agencies on a variety of public health issues, including foodborne disease, and it stations epidemiologists in state health departments to help with the surveillance and investigation of many problems. CDC can also send a team into the field to conduct emergency field investigations of large or unusual outbreaks, in collaboration with state public health officials. CDC researchers develop new methods for identifying, characterizing and fingerprinting the microbes that cause disease. We translate laboratory research into practical field methods that can be used by public health authorities in States and counties.

CDC is not a regulatory agency. Government regulation of food safety is carried out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) , the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other regulatory agencies. CDC maintains regular contact with the regulatory agencies.

When new public health threats appear, CDC learns what they are and how they can be controlled through rapid scientific field and laboratory investigation. CDC shares the results of these investigations with the states, with the regulatory federal agencies and with the industries themselves. Although we do not regulate the safety of food, CDC assesses the effectiveness of current prevention efforts. We provide independent scientific assessment of what the problems are, how they can be controlled, and of where there are gaps in our knowledge.

What are some unsolved problems in foodborne disease?

As new foodborne problems emerge, several questions need to be answered before the problem can be successfully controlled. It takes careful scientific observation and research to answer these questions. Some pressing unanswered questions include:

How do the foodborne pathogens spread among the animals themselves, and how can this be prevented? This includes E. coli O157:H7 among cattle, Salmonella Enteritis among egg-laying hens, and Campylobacter in broiler chickens. If we could prevent the animals from becoming infected in the first place, we would not have as much illness in the humans who eat them.

What is the microbial cause of outbreaks in which no pathogen can be identified by current methods? This is true for over half of the reported foodborne outbreaks. Will wider application of existing experimental diagnostic methods help, or are these outbreaks caused by pathogens we simply do not yet know how to identify?

What would be the impact of basic food safety education of restaurant workers on the risk of foodborne disease among restaurant patrons?

How can the food and water that animals consume be made safer?

How can we dispose of animal manure usefully, without threatening the food supply and the environment?

How can basic food safety principles be most effectively taught to school children?

How can we be sure food safety standards in other countries are as good as those in the United States? As we import more of our fresh foods from other countries, we need to be confident that they are produced with the same level of safety as food in the United States.

What control strategies in the slaughter plant will reduce the contamination of poultry meat with Campylobacter?

How can irradiation pasteurization of certain high risk foods, such as ground beef, be used most effectively?

How do raspberries in Central America get contaminated with Cyclospora in the first place? Does this parasite have an animal reservoir?

How can alfalfa sprouts and other raw sprouts be produced safely? Sprouts are unique among foods in that the conditions for sprouting are also perfect for bacterial growth, and they are not cooked after that.

About the Author

www.cdc.gov
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the 13 major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is the principal agency in the United States government for protecting the health and safety of all Americans and for providing essential human services, especially for those people who are least able to help themselves.