Food-Borne Illness Prevention: Part 2

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

(Page 2 of 2)

The sad fact is that food-borne illness can be very serious, as Nancy Donley's loss of her only child so clearly illustrates. Some pathogens give rise to diseases far more serious than the uncomfortable vomiting or diarrhea accompanying what most people call "food poisoning." Food-borne infections can cause spontaneous abortion, reactive arthritis, Guillain-Barr syndrome (the most common cause of acute paralysis in both children and adults), and HUS (hemolytic uremic syndrome), which can lead to kidney failure and death.

Levy says studies from the late 1980s and early 1990s have demonstrated that while people are becoming more concerned about food safety, unsafe practices are actually increasing, marking a real difference in peoples' concern vs. their actual behavior.

"There's inconsistency in food safety thinking, since normally greater knowledge is associated with better behaviors," Levy says.

One report distributed at the conference, Footnote Data Population Survey, prepared by USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service, noted that while 87 percent of those surveyed claimed they have read the safe handling label on ground beef, only 38.5 percent have changed the way they handle or cook ground beef.

Peter M. Sandman, Ph.D., a consultant with Risk Communications in Newton, Mass., and a conference speaker, says, "The risks that do damage according to the experts are not usually the risks that upset people. Experts respond to hazards; the public responds to outrage. When hazard is high and outrage is low, the experts will be concerned and the public will be apathetic. When people are outraged, they tend to think the hazard is serious."

For example, the risks that actually can do damage to people according to experts are not usually the risks that upset most people. Sandman cited such issues as concern about genetically altered foods and pesticides on food as "low hazard, high outrage" risks, when in actuality lack of knowledge about proper cooking temperatures and times for various meats and poultry pose more of a real hazard. Personal experience, the experience of others, and the news media, Sandman notes, all make a risk memorable in the public's mind. He says that public health personnel usually are doing a good job when it comes to dealing with hazards but are not doing a good job when it comes to outrage.

"Two concepts are important — alerting people to the risks, and assuring people," he says.

Food-Borne Illness Complex

The increasing complexity of food-borne illness itself also muddies the water when it comes to understanding food-related illness. Frederick J. Angulo, Ph.D., D.V.M., a CDC medical epidemiologist, cites a 1995 Salmonella outbreak in which "seeds grown on one continent, distributed to a second continent, caused illness on a third continent."

"We truly live in a global village and this [outbreak] reflects that," Angulo says. "It illustrates the increasing complexity of food-borne disease, which is occurring in multi-state and international fashion."

Oceans and man-made boundaries are not barriers to food-borne bacteria. Click on the map at right to see how a 1995 outbreak of Salmonella infection in the United States began with tainted alfalfa seeds half a world away.

Scientists are also seeing new routes of transmission, newly identified "reservoirs" of pathogens such as Cyclospora on raspberries, and new types of pathogens, Angulo notes. Other problems include existing organisms expressing new ways to evade immune defenses and the susceptibility of certain people — such as children, the elderly, people taking medicine for cancer treatment or organ transplants, and HIV/AIDS-infected people — to food-borne illness.

FDA, CDC, and USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service currently support seven FoodNet (Food-borne Disease Active Surveillance Network) early-warning sites at state health departments to track cases of food-borne infections and determine their sources. Angulo says even better surveillance is needed, not to "count cases" but to identify food-borne diseases and their sources.

Levy says that studies have shown that print and electronic news stories are the number one way people get information today when it comes to food-related issues. Second on consumers' lists: food labels, food packaging, and "the government," with cookbooks occupying third place among the ways people learn about safe food handling and preparation.

The Partnership for Food Safety Education, a public/private coalition including FDA, CDC, USDA, industry, consumer groups, and the U.S. Department of Education, is currently working to come up with effective strategies to convey food safety messages via the media and other channels.

"Until Alex's death I had no idea the food we bought and served our families could be carriers of deadly pathogens," says Donley. "I am attempting in my own small way to help others, just as Alex would have done, to be the voice for those forever silenced."

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.