States Vary in Response to Foodborne Illnesses

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

November 2, 2009

Foodborne illness outbreaks, caused by everything from spinach to peppers, have sickened hundreds in recent years and have snagged the public’s attention. But a new report suggests that state health departments vary in their responses to produce-related outbreaks, causing delayed response times and more illnesses while driving up costs.

The Produce Safety Project, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, released a report last week based on surveys of 39 state health departments. The report said that, among other problems, health officials are unlikely to link fresh produce to outbreaks because they’re not asking the right questions and are unable to link different data sources to trace foodborne illnesses to their source.

Produce-related illnesses are on the rise as more Americans consume fresh vegetables and fruits. In the 1970s, produce was linked to less than 1% of foodborne outbreaks. In the 1990s, that number rose to 6%.

“It is important to learn from our experience,” said Jim O’Hara, director of the Food Safety Project, in a statement. “So it is surprising that many states are failing to ask about fruits and vegetables on their questionnaires given to [foodborne] illness victims.”

The report built on another one released earlier this year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that found health department resources vary greatly from state to state but are generally underfunded.

This can mean that local and state public health officials, who are responsible for analyzing a person’s exposure to possible pathogens by asking them a series of questions, thereby tracking an illness back to its source, are often pressed for time or are unprepared. This information collected at the local and state level becomes part of the aggregated data studied by federal agencies to find larger patterns.

“The lack of food attribution data and especially attribution to produce is astounding considering the large burden of illness in the U.S.,” said Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, which conducted the surveys. “And it all starts with finding out what the person ate. The public health system cannot find what it’s not looking for or asking about. We certainly cannot fix the food-safety system when we don’t know exactly where and how the contaminated produce makes it into the marketplace and onto consumers’ plates.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says foodborne pathogens of all types cause roughly 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths each year.