Res earc her Published by CQ Press, a Division of SAGE CQ www.cqresearcher.com Food Safety Would new legislation make the food supply safer? our food can kill you. Every year, about 3,000 Americans die from salmonella and other food - borne illnesses, and an estimated 48 million are YY sickened. Recent scandals over abysmal sanitary conditions in food processing plants that led to large disease out - breaks in eggs and peanuts have pushed Congress to overhaul the food-safety system for all foods except meat and poultry. A last- minute hitch, however, has left the fate of that bipartisan legislation uncertain, despite support from an unusual alliance of industry A USDA medical officer checks eggs for salmonella and consumer advocates. If it wins enactment, advocates may bacteria. Massive health violations by Iowa egg processors led to salmonella contamination that push for revamping meat regulation. Far more disagreement exists sickened at least 1,600 people nationwide this year and sparked the biggest egg recall in U.S. history. on the controversial genetic frontier of food safety. Scientists can now genetically modify fruits and vegetables as well as livestock I and other food animals. But debate over the safety of genetic N THIS REPORT S modification among lawmakers, food safety officials, consumer THE ISSUES ..................1039 I groups and the food industry shows no sign of quieting down. BACKGROUND ..............1046 D CHRONOLOGY ..............1047 E CURRENT SITUATION ......1051 CQ Researcher • Dec. 17, 2010 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ......................1053 Volume 20, Number 44 • Pages 1037-1060 OUTLOOK ....................1054 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD BIBLIOGRAPHY ..............1058 THE NEXT STEP ............1059 FOOD SAFETY CQ Re search er Dec. 17, 2010 THE ISSUES SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS Volume 20, Number 44 • Would new legislation Recalls Occurred in MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin [email protected] 1039 make food safer? 1040 Every State • Are imports a bigger More than 2,500 occurred ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITORS: Kathy Koch last year. [email protected] problem than domestically Thomas J. Billitteri, [email protected] produced food? • Are genetic modifications 1041 Reducing the Risk of ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost and livestock hormones as Food-borne Illness STAFF WRITERS: Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel dangerous as salmonella Poultry, meat and eggs should be cooked thoroughly. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Roland Flamini, and other pathogens? Sarah Glazer, Alan Greenblatt, Reed Karaim, BACKGROUND Millions Sickened by Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, Jennifer Weeks 1042 Food-borne Illness DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis An estimated 5,000 Americans Outrage and Regulation ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa 1046 die each year. Revelations about Chicago’s FACT-CHECKING: Eugene J. Gabler, meatpacking plants led to Common Food-borne Michelle Harris federal food inspection. 1044 Diseases INTERN: Maggie Clark Bacterial pathogens cause the A System Transformed most prevalent illnesses. 1046 Globalized food production changed Americans’ eating Chronology habits. 1047 Key events since 1905. Genes and Drugs 1048 Contaminated Food’s Toll: A Division of SAGE 1049 In the 1970s consumer Sickness, Agony and PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER: advocates warned about Maybe Death John A. Jenkins genetic engineering. “A lot of survivors are faced with lifelong illness.” DIRECTOR, REFERENCE SOLUTIONS: Todd Baldwin Outbreaks 1050 Food-borne illnesses have 1050 Small Fraction of Food cropped up repeatedly Imports Are Inspected Copyright © 2010 CQ Press, a Division of SAGE. over the past 20 years. Most shipments pass. SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this 1052 How to Handle a Recalled publication may be reproduced electronically or CURRENT SITUATION Product otherwise, without prior written permission. Un - Here are tips from the Food au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy - and Drug Administration. right ed material is a violation of federal law car ry ing Law Stalled 1051 civil fines of up to $100,000. Efforts to give the FDA At Issue more power have stalled. 1053 Would strengthening FDA CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional regulatory authority improve Quarterly Inc. Genetically Modified food safety? CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- 1054 Salmon free paper. Pub lished weekly, except; (Jan. wk. 1) Environmentalists oppose (May wk. 4) (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 2, 3) (Nov. FDA approval for altering FOR FURTHER RESEARCH wk. 4) and (Dec. wks. 4, 5), by CQ Press, a division the fish. of SAGE Publications. Annual full-service subscriptions For More Information start at $803. For pricing, call 1-800-834-9020. To pur - 1057 Organizations to contact. chase a CQ Researcher report in print or electronic OUTLOOK format (PDF), visit www. cqpress.com or call 866-427- 1058 Bibliography 7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk purchase dis - Down to the Wire Selected sources used. counts and electronic-rights licensing are also avail - 1054 able. Pe ri od i cals post age paid at Wash ing ton, D.C., Prospects for a food-safety The Next Step bill this year are dim. 1059 and ad di tion al mailing of fic es. POST MAST ER: Send Additional articles . ad dress chang es to CQ Re search er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037. Citing CQ Researcher Cover: U.S.D.A./Stephen Ausmus 1059 Sample bibliography formats. 1038 CQ Researcher Food Safety BY PETER KATEL state inspectors, found after THE ISSUES the outbreak that Peanut Corp. of America’s own factory tests he report made for had turned up salmonella 12 poor breakfast reading times since 2007. The Virginia- T — especially if eggs based company has filed for were on the menu. bankruptcy protection. 5 “Chicken manure located Most victims of a food- in the manure pits below borne illness suffer nothing the egg laying operation was n more serious than a stomach o t r observed to be approxi - e disorder that they can shake b mately 4 feet high to 8 feet m off, but thousands of others e P high,” government inspec - aren’t so lucky. “I spent 12 e l l tors wrote in August. “The e hours in the ER, so sick they h c outside access doors to the i were scared to move me,” M / manure pits . had been r Sarah Lewis, 30, of Freedom, a t S pushed out by the weight Calif., told lawmakers of her s i 1 l of the manure.” o experience after she ate a p And the list of food-safety a custard tart at a banquet. n a hazards didn’t stop there, as i Eggs in the custard were d n I U.S. Food and Drug Adminis - traced to the Iowa farms. e tration (FDA) investigators h T “They thought they were / o roamed farms in Clarion and t going to have to do emer - o Galt, Iowa. “Live and dead flies h gency bowel surgery because P too numerous to count were P the CT scan showed bowels A observed,” they reported. “In Packages of recalled peanut butter crackers await that were so inflamed and so addition, live and dead mag - pickup at an Indianapolis food bank last year. Nine sick I was put in ICU.” 6 gots too numerous to count people died in 2008-2009 after eating salmonella- After recovering, Lewis had contaminated peanut products from a Georgia were observed,” as well as processing plant where inspectors found to be hospitalized again less “holes appearing to be rodent blatant violations of food-safety standards. than three weeks later. And burrows located along the sec - even after that, she testified, ond floor baseboards.” 2 “I had to be on antibiotics The report made prime fare for a DeCoster insisted that the farm main - every six hours for the next 14 days. September congressional hearing into tained salmonella-prevention mea - And all during this I found out that the outbreak of egg-borne salmonella sures beyond those required by the the salmonella was still present and poisoning that sickened at least 1,600 FDA. He blamed an outside animal raging in my body. I still have severe people nationwide starting in May. feed supplier for the outbreak. cramping, diarrhea, fevers.” 7 The bacteria apparently had migrated Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy The U.S. Centers for Disease Con - from chickens’ innards to eggshells, FDA commissioner, later disputed the trol and Prevention (CDC) estimates though egg farms are supposed to re - feed-supplier hypothesis. “The FDA has that 3,000 people a year die from taint - move salmonella. not reached that conclusion at all,” he ed food or drink, and that 48 million “Why did companies with a record of told reporters outside the hearing. 4 are sickened. And, like Lewis, an es - prior violations not ensure their facilities The egg scandal marked the second timated 128,000 are hospitalized. were clean and free of rodents?” Rep. such major episode in as many years These numbers are noticeably lower Michael Doyle, D-Pa., asked as a House involving salmonella-tainted food. Nine than previous estimates from 1999, but panel grilled Peter DeCoster, chief oper - people died in 2008-2009 after eating CDC scientists wrote that improved ating officer of his family’s Wright Coun - contaminated peanut products. They data collection and more accurate sta - ty egg operation, and other witnesses. came from a Georgia processing plant tistical techniques have lent greater pre - “Why did positive tests for salmonella not where inspectors found blatant viola - cision to the estimating process. What cause the producers to go into overdrive tions of elementary food-safety standards.