Food Safety Data
As a scientist, I love data. I love the feeling of satisfaction a spreadsheet full of data gives me after doing an experiment. Numbers have meaning for me, so I collect them. Most food safety experts in the US quote these numbers:
“CDC estimates 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases each year in the United States.” (ref)
These numbers are from 2011. As this data is over ten years old, we don’t know if the Food Safety Modernization Act has had any effect on the burden of foodborne illness.
There have been annual surveillance reports. The last one for foodborne illness was in 2017 and showed that there were 841 foodborne disease outbreaks with 14,481 illnesses, 827 hospitalizations, 20 deaths, and 14 food recalls. The numbers seem lower than those often quoted as above because only 20% of foodborne illness outbreaks are linked to a source, to a pathogen. Thus, for almost 39 million of those who got ill, we don’t know cause and, worse in my opinion, we only know the cause of less than half (44%) of those who die from food poisoning.
The food that caused the most illness in 2017 was turkey followed by fruit. Noroviruses and Salmonella were the pathogens that caused the most illness.
Cost of Foodborne Illnesses
The annual cost of foodborne illness is $15.5 billion annually as estimated by the Economic Research Service of the USDA based on 2021 data and on identified illness. It includes the associated outpatient and inpatient expenditures on medical care, the lost wages of the people who became ill, and the loss of production from those ill workers.
The cost to the food industry of performing recalls and loss of business not included. A 2011 report from the Consumer Brands Association estimated that the average cost for a food manufacturer for a recall is $10 million with one third of recalls costing more than $30 million.
Most small businesses go out of business because they cannot absorb this cost.
Stories
The people affected by the illness are missing from the data. One is six people getting a foodborne illness each yar means that if you on a Zoom call with 20 people, like I was last night, 3 of us will be ill this year from a food pathogen. Who will it be? These people are friends.
STOP Foodborne Illness collects these stories and perhaps that will make food safety more real for you and your co-workers.
Learn about Mary who is still dealing with an illness she has as a teenager after eating contaminated undercooked chicken.
There is Greta, and her parents, who got an unidentified virus from eating salad in a restaurant.
Finally, there is Carol who suffered from E.coli O157 H7 after visiting a local farm and drinking cider.
These stories are heart-breaking, reminding me why I am a food safety consultant.
Learning about this data and these people’s stories will encourage you and your co-workers to care about food safety during National Food Safety Education Month and beyond.
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Who is Cathy Davies?
I write about the intersection of food science and food systems with an emphasis on food safety, food justice and resilience. I am concerned that climate disasters and changing weather patterns are affecting our ability to eat healthy, nutritious food.
I run a food safety consultancy, Food Safety Mid Atlantic, supporting specialty food businesses with their food safety plans and programs. If you are interested in learning more about my consulting services, please schedule a free call.
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