Foodborne illnesses decline; federal role credited
Since 1996, when three agencies set up a system to track diseases transmitted through food, the incidence of such illnesses has dropped sharply.
Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday showed that cases of some of the most deadly foodborne diseases have decreased dramatically since the inception of a multiagency effort to track the prevalence of the diseases.
E. coli 0157:H7 infections dropped 36 percent from 2002 to 2003, and have declined 42 percent since 1996.
Incidences of diseases caused by other infectious agents commonly transmitted through food, such as Campylobacter, Salmonella and Yersinia, also showed substantial declines since 1996, when the CDC, the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration established the FoodNet surveillance system to track foodborne illnesses.
Despite the positive news, CDC warned in a preliminary report that "the high incidence of several of these infections in infants and young children is of major concern." In addition, some pathogens, such as Listeria, Shigella, and several variations of Salmonella, while not increasing, were also not declining.
Public health officials estimate that 76 million Americans contract foodborne illnesses every year. Children, the elderly, and people whose immune systems are compromised are especially susceptible.
Continuing concerns about foodborne illness were highlighted later on Thursday when the Agriculture Department's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced the recall of 45,000 pounds of raw ground beef possibly contaminated with E. coli O157:H7. The beef was produced by a Dodge City, Kan., firm on April 9, and shipped to distributors in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio and Texas. E. coli 0157:H7 can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration.
An outbreak of E. coli 0157:H7 caused by tainted ground beef in the Pacific Northwest in 1993 killed several children and sickened hundreds of others, prompting the most far-reaching reforms in food inspections since the 1906 Federal Meat Inspection Act.
CDC credited those reforms, along with stronger federal regulation, better public education and improved technologies, with more effectively controlling dangerous pathogens.
In 1996, the inspection service began to augment its traditional "poke and sniff" inspections by implementing what's known as the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) system. It requires slaughterhouses and food producers to implement practices that reduce the presence of pathogens, which cannot be detected visually. Inspectors insure compliance through scientific testing for pathogens at critical points in the production process and through regular reviews of company records.
An FSIS inspector discovered the E. coli contamination at the Dodge City plant after scientific testing showed the pathogen's presence. The agency said it has received no reports of illnesses resulting from consumption of the beef.
The CDC reported that the decline of human E. coli infections in 2003 followed an October 2002 FSIS notice to manufacturers of raw ground beef products that they needed to reassess their HACCP plans regarding the pathogen. As a result, many beef processing plants do not distribute raw ground beef unless tests performed at the plants are negative for E. coli.