Michelle Jarvie | Food Safety News

Part 3: History of Food Safety in the U.S.

Michelle Jarvie — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:02:47 +0000

(This article by Michelle Jarvie of Michigan State University Extension was originally posted here on Oct. 21, 2014, and is reposted with permission. Part 1 of her three-part series is here, and Part 2 is here.) Why do we hear more about food safety issues today than in the past? Are these issues something we really need to worry about or just a bunch of media hype? What incredibly difficult questions to answer. Let me start by saying there is no “final answer,” only mere suggestions, theories and probable correlations. Here are some of the probable answers: One of the main reasons we are more aware of food safety issues and foodborne illness is the fact that science has advanced. As little as 50 years ago, we didn’t have the technology necessary to detect some microbes that had existed for centuries. Many illness-causing microbes, such as Campylobacter jejuni, weren’t linked to human illness or identified as a foodborne pathogen until the 1970s or later. Better microscopes, more thorough testing procedures, and more testing in general has made us a society that is more aware of the microbiology around us. Only recently have we acquired the capability to gather samples from sick people around the globe, test potential contaminated foods, match those two samples to find the culprit of the illness, and then track the food back to where it came from — all of this in less than 24 hours. Fifty years ago, it may have taken weeks to link multiple illnesses in the same state, if it happened at all, and the incidents most likely never made the news unless numerous people died from the outbreak. (Note: Reading this may sound like an easy process, which it is not, but it is possible in some cases. Such advances in science have led to food recalls which hit the media and spark local, national and even global awareness.) Another reason there is generally more awareness surrounding food safety is that microbes are constantly changing, and many “old” microbes are resurfacing in new and surprising places. Vibrio cholerae, better known as cholera, hadn’t been found in the Americas for more than 100 years, but it was suddenly showing up again in the early 1990s. Traditionally thought of as a disease of countries with poor sanitation, cases were showing up in the U.S. and were eventually linked to contaminated imported foods. Now, global food chains and the demand for fresh fruit and vegetables year-round (like strawberries in December) are potentially bringing pathogens to a grocery store near you. Older microbes are also mutating into more virulent strains, some of them antibiotic-resistant. One such example is Salmonella, which we have experienced the perils of for centuries (typhoid fever), but newer, resistant strains, such as Salmonella typhimurium DT104, are surfacing regularly. Some speculate that overuse of antibiotics in food animals, as well as humans, may be contributing to these new resistant forms of old bacteria, but the jury is still out. These disease agents, along with several others, were presented in a 2013 Food Safety Progress Report. Cultural shifts in the way we interact with the environment around us, as well as changing the ways in which we raise our food, may also contribute to raised incidence and awareness of foodborne illness. A good example of this is E. coli. We have been living with E. coli since the beginning of time. Some strains are already present inside our bodies and don’t cause us harm, but other strains, such as O157:H7, can be deadly. This strain is most often found in the fecal matter of cows and has been linked to several illness outbreaks from hamburgers. Most of the ground meat in the U.S. comes from concentrated animal farms, where cattle are kept in large numbers in close quarters where the bacteria can be spread easily between cattle, and through manure on the bodies of cattle going to slaughter. Once in the slaughterhouse, the bacteria from one infected cow could potentially contaminate thousands of pounds of ground meat as it is all mixed together in large batches. Although strains very similar to E. coli O157:H7 have been around for 50,000 years, strains were only identified as a pathogen in humans in 1982. Why did it all of a sudden make a dramatic appearance? One suggestion is that, as a society, we used to live in close proximity to cattle and thus were a part of the environment that contained such microbes and our immune systems were accustomed to them. Whereas now, we are mostly very separate from the farm animals we eat and have not evolved with a shared set of microbes. Another suggestion involves changes in farming practices. Cattle are traditionally herbivores, grass-eaters to be exact, but the fattening of cows for slaughter is more easily and cheaply done with grain and other food additives. Some science suggests that this change in diet could have led to E. coli adapting to stomach acid levels that would allow it to thrive in human guts. Furthermore, instead of a very clear path of meat from the farm to your fork, a complicated corporate, maze-like chain of supply gets the meat from the farm to your fork, so that now, in a one-pound package of burger, we could possibly be ingesting meat from more than 100 different cows, from multiple locations, possibly even other countries. With ever-increasing demand for inexpensive meat, there come more cattle, and more manure, and less space to put all of it. For those reasons, it is no wonder that E. coli O157:H7 is also showing up in unconventional places such as deer and seagulls, who may have been exposed to raw manure or water contaminated with manure. There have also been major shifts in our own eating culture. Americans today are always on the go and too busy to cook at home, let alone grow their own food. We are a culture of convenience. Most Americans have no idea where their food comes from, and most first-graders can’t tell a tomato from a potato. We have completely disconnected from our food. Instead, we rely on pre-packaged, pre-sliced, pre-cooked “food,” or, we go out to eat. Studies show that Americans now eat out four times per week on average. By doing so, we are putting the job of preparing our food in the hands of some of the lowest-paid people in the country who almost never get paid sick days. A 2007 study found that many food-handlers are generally aware of germs, but they don’t truly understand their role in prevention. Other studies conclude that about 50 percent or more of food workers go to work when sick because they can’t afford to take a day off. Currently, about 20 percent of foodborne illness outbreaks can be traced to a sick food worker. The concept of “cooked” has also changed in the past 50 years. In the past, a pink or rare burger at a restaurant (or at home) was unheard of, but today most places cook burgers to “medium” unless otherwise stated. Unfortunately, most people don’t realize that consuming a burger cooked to anything less than 160 degrees F puts you at risk of ingesting dangerous microbes. As you can see, the subject is vast, and it’s really difficult to pinpoint one single reason for increasing outbreaks and awareness. I’ve only touched on a few here, yet there are others that blame media hype, overuse of antibiotics in the medical industry, and a society that is fearful and thus elbow-deep in antibiotic hand gels that may hurt more than help. No matter what the reasons, microbes are here to stay. Michigan State University Extension recommends the best way to protect yourself from foodborne illness is to wash your hands thoroughly before handling food and thoroughly cook meats to the recommended internal temperatures for the type of meat being cooked. It is important to know what foods can make you ill, your chances of getting foodborne illnesses, and, most important, ways to prevent them.

Part 2: History of Food Safety in the U.S.

Michelle Jarvie — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 05:02:43 +0000

(This article by Michelle Jarvie of Michigan State University Extension was originally posted here on Oct. 2, 2014, and is reposted with permission. Part 1 is here. Part 3 in her series will be appear later this month.) Welcome to the second installment of the history of food safety in the U.S. This time we’ll take a look at food policy and legislation over time. As discussed in Part 1, the collection of foodborne illness data is relatively new. “The Jungle,” written by Upton Sinclair and published in February 1906, was a fictional novel that portrayed the lives of immigrants in industrialized cities of that time, but the book inadvertently raised public concern about the health, safety and sanitation practices of the Chicago meatpacking industry. Although the book was published as fiction, Sinclair spent nearly nine months in 1904, undercover, as an employee in a Chicago meatpacking plant. Upon reading the book, President Theodore Roosevelt called on Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which were both passed in June 1906. They were the first U.S. laws that addressed the safety of the public food supply. Both of these laws defined “misbranding” and “adulteration” in food, which primarily means they were concerned with truth in labeling and food additives. In those days, many food preservatives (such as formaldehyde and borax) were added to products to disguise unsanitary production processes. One of the first major court battles involving the Pure Food and Drug Act was an attempt to outlaw Coca-Cola due to its excessively high caffeine content. This law was the precursor to the formation of what is now called the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Meat Inspection Act led to the formation of the United States Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service. Recorded U.S. deaths from food-related illness significantly dropped during the first decade after these laws were enacted. Between 1906 and 1938, many more similar acts were created that monitored food additives such as colors and chemical additions, as well as labeling and marketing of foods. The winter of 1924-25 brought what is possibly the worst foodborne illness outbreak known to date. The outbreak was typhoid fever that had been spread through improperly handled oysters and was the first outbreak to gain nationwide attention. Unfortunately, it wasn’t until 1969 that FDA began sanitation programs specifically for shellfish, as well as milk and the food-service industry as a whole. In 1970, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) began keeping records on foodborne illness-related deaths in the U.S. This is really the starting point for data on modern foodborne illness outbreaks. A nationwide illness outbreak from canned mushrooms in 1973 led to the first major food recall in the U.S., causing the removal of more than 75 million cans of mushrooms from store shelves. Due to this outbreak, the National Botulism Surveillance System was developed to collect reports and data from all confirmed botulism cases in the U.S. In the same year, processing regulations for low-acid foods were set forth to ensure proper heat-treating of canned foods. In 1997, a few years after the Jack in the Box incident, the Clinton administration put $43 million into a food-safety initiative that created many of the regulations we see and hear about today. This initiative brought regulations on seafood, meat and poultry processing, and shell eggs. It also created a program for DNA fingerprinting that would help track outbreaks and determine sources of outbreaks. Finally, the initiative called for a cooperative detection and response effort between CDC, FDA, USDA and local agencies called FoodNet. Today, we have the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which was signed into law in 2011 and is considered the most significant food-safety legislation in more than 70 years. The major difference between this act and those of the past is that the focus has switched from responding, to contamination, to prevention. The law gives FDA authority to regulate the way foods are grown, harvested and processed. Although the act is still in its infancy, many are hoping to see fewer illness outbreaks in the future due to tighter regulations. Stay tuned for Part 3 in this series where we’ll try to finally answer the question: Why do we hear more about food safety issues today compared to the past?

Part 1: History of Food Safety in the U.S.

Michelle Jarvie — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 05:02:49 +0000

(This article by Michelle Jarvie of Michigan State University Extension was originally posted here on Sept. 30, 2014, and is reposted with permission. Parts 2 and 3 in her series will be appear later this month.) One question I am commonly asked when talking about food safety is why we hear more about foodborne illness outbreaks, and food safety issues in general, more today than we have in the past. To fully answer that question, let’s take a look back in time to discover the history of food safety in the U.S. There are three main parts to examine: The history of foodborne illness itself, U.S. legislation surrounding the safety of our food supply, and the scientific and social aspects of these illnesses. Let’s start with looking at the history of foodborne illness. As you can imagine, people have been getting sick from eating food for as long as we’ve been eating food. The first suggested case of a known foodborne illness was proposed by doctors from the University of Maryland, who think that Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C. from a case of typhoid fever when he and his army stopped to rest in ancient Babylon. Typhoid fever is caused by the bacteria Salmonella Typhi, which can be contracted from contaminated food or water. Although this theory can never be fully proven, it goes to show that humans have probably been affected by these illnesses through all of history. Other well-known people throughout history are also suspected to have died from foodborne illnesses, including King Henry I, Rudyard Kipling, President Zachary Taylor and Prince Albert. In the U.S., foodborne pathogens have played roles in settling territory and fighting wars. Many historians believe that the first English settlement in Jamestown, VA, was decimated by typhoid fever many times between 1607 and 1699, ultimately leading to its demise. Also in the late 1600s, a toxic fungus changed the course of history and led to the Salem witch trials. The fungus, which was growing on the rye they used for food, caused many symptoms that settlers were unfamiliar with, which led to the accusation of witchcraft and killing of those infected. In 1898, typhoid fever struck again during the Spanish-American war, sickening more than 20,000 American soldiers. In more modern history, some of the biggest outbreaks occurred starting in the early 1900s with streptococcus in raw milk, botulism in canned olives and Salmonella Typhi in oysters. Those outbreaks ultimately caused a few hundred deaths. Similar outbreaks continued to occur during the first half of the 20th century in America. The latter half of the century and into the 2000s have seen a major spike in the number of outbreaks across the country. Salmonellosis was the culprit of one such major outbreak in 1985. It was responsible for the largest number of food-related deaths since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) started recording data. That year also saw roughly 200,000 people sickened from contaminated milk. Possibly the most infamous outbreak, known as the Jack in the Box incident, happened in 1993, and four children died from E. coli-contaminated hamburgers. Major outbreaks in the 2000s include the 2006 E. coli outbreak from contaminated spinach, which caused five deaths, a Salmonella outbreak in peanut butter, which caused nine deaths and sickened 714 people in 46 states in 2008-09, and the 2011 Listeria outbreak on cantaloupes that caused 33 deaths and one miscarriage. Nearly every day now you can read news about another foodborne illness outbreak or food recall somewhere in the U.S. Already in 2014, there have been eight major multi-state investigations done by the CDC and countless other reports of localized illness. Every year CDC estimates that about one in six people will contract a foodborne illness. Most likely we will all have had at least one in our lifetimes, most likely more. Throughout history, there has been a multitude of sicknesses deriving from food. To prevent foodborne illness now and in the future, Michigan State University Extension recommends proper hand-washing when preparing/serving food or eating, as well as storing food at proper temperatures. Stay tuned for more history of food safety in the U.S. in future articles.