Report by
Reports of Foodborne Illness Decline by 40% - but data may be bad
Apr 17, 2013
https://foodpoisoningbulletin.com/2013/reports-of-foodborne-illness-decline-by-40/ Excerpt: "The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has released a new review of foodborne illness outbreaks. They found that from 2001 to 2010, the latest period for which data is available, outbreaks related to E. coli, Salmonella, and other pathogens decreased by more than 40%. This may be because of better food safety practices, including the adoption of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) programs in the meat, poultry, and seafood industries, as specified by the government. But the agency warns that incomplete reporting by public health agencies stretched and overworked by budget cuts may have influenced the data. CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal said, “despite progress made by the industry and by food safety regulators, contaminated food is still causing too many illnesses, visits to the emergency room, and deaths. Yet state and local health departments and federal food safety programs always seem to be on the chopping block. Those financial pressures not only threaten the progress we’ve made on food safety, but threaten our very understanding of which foods and which pathogens are making people sick.”