Within the past few weeks there has been a salmonella outbreak linked to a sausage and salami facility in Rhode Island, a recall of chewy chocolate chip granola bars in California also potentially contaminated with salmonella and a recall of cheese in Washington state potentially contaminated with listeria monocytogenes, which can cause serious, sometimes fatal, infections. While the sausage contamination resulted in 225 people becoming ill in 44 states, the other two recalls didn’t involve any illnesses. Without stricter food-safety enforcement, though, consumers may not be so lucky.
A growing number of Americans have been sickened by foodborne illnessin many cases from food they never considered risky. While most of the 76 million reported foodborne illnesses a year are mild, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths are related to tainted food each year. Foodborne illness outbreaks appear to be increasing, the Food and Drug Administration says.
That’s partly due to better surveillance and detection methods. But it’s also because new disease-causing organisms have emerged and imports of food from countries without the same safety standards as the U.S. are on the rise. What’s more, consumers are demanding less-processed foods such as raw milk and fresh juices that aren’t cooked or pasteurized to kill bacteria.
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