If today is an average day in the United States, 13 people will die from food poisoning. Another 200,000 will get sick for a few days. And several thousand more may begin to suffer reactive arthritis, paralysis, or other symptoms that can last for months or years (see "Food Poisoning's Long Shadow," May 2002, p. 1).
Which foods cause the outbreaks that sicken the most people? "Fruits and vegetables top the list," says Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (which publishes Nutrition Action Healthletter).
CSPI has just issued the fifth edition of Outbreak Alert, a tally of food poisoning outbreaks in the U.S. since 1990 in which the food sources have been identified. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--CDC--declares an outbreak when at least two people who eat the same contaminated food get sick. Since 1990, 2,472 outbreaks have sickened 90,355 people.)
"About half of the fruit-and-vegetable outbreaks were caused by salads, berries, raw sprouts, and lettuce," notes DeWaal. "Four out of every ten produce outbreaks were the result of bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens that are commonly found in meat and poultry," she adds. That means that the fruits and vegetables were probably contaminated in the fields with tainted water or manure.
"Contamination is a good reason to buy only pasteurized fruit juices and to wash your fruits and vegetables under running water," says DeWaal. "It's not an excuse to eat fewer fruits and vegetables."
Second on the foods-most-likely-to-make-you-sick list: poultry. A new Consumer Reports analysis found Salmonella or Campylobacter in about half of the whole fresh chickens it purchased at supermarkets nationwide. And some of the bacteria were resistant to human antibiotics. If you become ill after eating chicken contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria, you may get sicker and stay sick longer.
"The only way to protect yourself is to avoid contaminating kitchen counters and utensils when handling raw poultry and to always cook your poultry thoroughly," says DeWaal. That means making sure it reaches at least 170[degrees]F in the breast and 180[degrees]F in the other parts or in the whole bird.
Then there are beef and eggs, which are neck-and-neck in the dubious race for third place on the Food Poisoning Hit Parade.
"Use a meat thermometer to make sure you cook your burgers to at least 160[degrees] F and your steaks and roasts to at least 145[degrees]F," says DeWaal. "That will kill harmful bacteria." You also need to thoroughly cook your eggs and any dishes made with eggs.
Location, Location
Where you live figures into how likely you are to get food poisoning, according to the CDC.
"We found substantial variations in the rate of Campylobacter, Salmonella, and E. coli infections in the states we studied," says the CDC's Fred Angulo. Angulo is chief of Foodnet, a network that keeps track of foodborne illnesses in nine states.
In the year 2000, for example, California residents were six times more likely to suffer a Campylobacter infection than Tennessee residents. "That probably reflected greater rates of Campylobacter-contaminated poultry in California," says Angulo.
Bugs to Go
Where you eat can also affect your risk. "Consuming food prepared outside the home is associated with an increased risk of foodborne illness," says Angulo.
The CDC estimates that people who ate chicken out in 1998 and 1999 were twice as likely to get sick with a Salmonella infection than people who ate chicken only at home.
What's more, people who ate hamburgers at non-fast-food restaurants were ten times more likely to become infected with E. coli O157:H7 than people who ate hamburgers only at home.
"We don't know why," says Angulo. People might be more likely to report restaurant outbreaks, or there might be more opportunities for food or utensils to touch a contaminated surface in a restaurant kitchen.
On the other hand, "major fast-food restaurant chains have strict standards for the presence of bacteria like E. coli and Salmonella in the ground beef they buy from their suppliers," says Angulo. Also, production is more mechanized at fast-food chains, so it's easier to cook every burger to a temperature that kills E. coli.
For a list of the major food bugs and toxins and the symptoms they cause, see "The Dirty Dozen."
COPYRIGHT 2003 Center for Science in the Public Interest
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group
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