Food Safety Efforts Have Stalled in Recent Years, CDC Says

Efforts to reduce the number of food-borne illnesses in the United States have stalled in the past three years, and some illnesses are on the upswing, giving new urgency to efforts to reform the nation’s food safety system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported yesterday.

”We need greater effort at all stages of movement of food in the food chain from farm to table” to prevent bacterial contamination, said Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases.

Several factors are fueling the trend, including the intricacy of the U.S. food chain, the changing nature of the contaminating bacteria and the rise in imported food, Tauxe said. Bacteria that used to be associated mainly with meats and poultry have recently shown up in fresh produce, posing new risks, he said. Examples include E. coli 0157 in spinach and salmonella in peanuts and pistachios.


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