Tackling tainted food: A lot can go wrong -- at any step along the way

Diagnosing a foodborne illness is straightforward. Determining where and when the pathogen started may be more challenging.

By Victoria Stagg Elliott, AMNews staff. March 19, 2007.

Last fall, Dr. Samiya Razzaq, a pediatrician at Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock, witnessed the result of gaps in the nation's food safety controls. Three young children were sick enough to be transferred to her institution because of something they ate. Another 40 from the same day care center also were ill, although they did not have to be hospitalized.

"The whole food safety system is fragile," said Dr. Razzaq, who also teaches at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. "One little mistake from somewhere and it's a major epidemic."

The good news is that these patients recovered. But the cause of this illness cluster has not been confirmed, and Dr. Razzaq suspects it may have been part of the large national outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7 reported in September 2006 and associated with raw, bagged, pre-washed spinach. At least 204 cases were confirmed across the country, including three deaths.

Foodborne illnesses have made headlines in the past six months with stories ranging from Salmonella-contaminated peanut butter to Clostridium botulinum-tainted baby food. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 76 million illnesses annually can be blamed on foodborne pathogens. And each year, 325,000 people are hospitalized; 5,000 do not survive.

Ironically, it is produce -- usually considered to be among the healthiest of foods -- that has been associated with much of the recent harm.

The latest report from the CDC's Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network says food-related illnesses have declined over the past decade, and many experts say the food supply is more safe than ever. But produce seems to be responsible for a growing percentage of these incidents, with bagged salad blamed most often. According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, salads are the culprit in 28% of produce-related outbreaks.