How many recalls have we seen this year that were due to food being contaminated by bacteria? I know I've lost count. I remember the peanut butter, Costco chicken curry and the Malt-o-Meal cereal, oh, and the cantaloupes. Other than that, it's a blur. It seems like we've seen more recalls this year than ever.According to the CDC, though, we're not getting sicker. Their concern is that we're not getting less sick anymore. The scientists who collect this information say the number of cases of food borne illnesses were on the decline until 2004, but they've leveled off since then. Take a look at this article for more information on what bugs are out there this year.
As glad as I am to hear that the level of illnesses aren't going up, I wonder if we can really expect them to go down very much. It's not that I have any basis to make a judgment, it just seems that some bacteria is always going to be popping up in our industrialized food processing system. Hopefully, I am wrong.
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-11-2008 @ 3:17PM
Michael Schmitt said...
Shayna mentions, "it just seems that some bacteria is always going to be popping up in our industrialized food processing system."
One thing that needs to be mentioned is that those same bacteria are going to be popping up in almost ANY system, whether industrialized or personal. If you grow your own vegetables, and there are cats, deer, birds, or any other animals out there, you can get toxoplasmosis, E. coli, or Salmonella in your home grown food.
One thing we need to do is make sure that we all take precautions for our food, whether we make it or not. We have alert systems in the US to help us know when an outbreak occurs, and industrial food safety systems (HACCP, SQF, etc.), when adhered to, have done a lot to make our food safer. It's when those systems break down that we have problems.
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