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America’s Dirty Secret: We’re a Dangerous Place to Eat

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Some eye-popping food-safety stats from the Economist:

1. There are 26,000 food poisoning cases per 100,000 Americans, every year!

2. Compare that to only 3,400 cases in the UK, and just 1,200 in France (about one tenth, and one twentieth, compared to the US).

3. Every year 76 million Americans become ill with food poisoning. That’s 25% chance each one of us will get sick this year.

4. Of those contracting some ailment, 325,000 end up in a hospital, while most others get over it in a day or 2.

5. However, five thousand Americans die every year from food poisoning.

6. Insufficient food safety is a $35 Billion drag on the US economy.

Why is the US a tenfold more dangerous place to eat than Europe?

Some of the reasons offered in the article are “less eating out, less prepared meals, and less hamburgers” in the UK, but the real reason may lie elsewhere.

This is because the top products involved in food poisoning are actually leafy greens and several other unprocessed foods consumed at home.

There is hope, both on the regulatory and the entrepreneurial fronts. The FDA may soon be empowered by Congress to perform more routine checkups on producers and packers. And companies like Yottamark and FoodLogiq are creating barcodes that enable consumers to trace the route of their spinach all the way back to the farm where it was originally grown.

What to do at the supermarket:

Always thoroughly wash your fruits and vegetables thoroughly before serving. If you prepare meats often, invest in a food thermometer to make sure your cut gets hot enough at the center before serving.

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  • http://bodywit.com/ Alexandra

    That is a dirty secret indeed! The thing is, the US doesn’t really have traditional foods that are common everywhere in Europe. As the states only have a few hundred years of history, there are no traditions to guide the American taste in food.

    These traditions evolve over time and ensure that the local make the best choices for their environment. I mean, compare the traditional Mediterranean diet with food favored in Alaska.

    Americans don’t have these traditions to tell them what is their best choice of a diet. And that’s where everything goes wrong.

    All the best,
    Alexandra

  • http://treetowntalk.com Karen Moorhead

    I believe this about greens! I am just getting better from bad lettuce and I agree the farmer’s market is where I am going to look for the greens in the future.

    Ughhh, to avoid this is so important.

  • http://www.livingitupcornfree.com kc

    Most of those changes that will be made by the government in an effort to curtail food-borne illness is going to put our local farmers out of business. Barcodes to track bacteria-laden spinach to the farm sounds good but will be cost prohibitive for my local farmers. The answer is to buy from the farmers market where you can build a relationship with the spinach grower and he knows he is accountable. In an effort to further ensure that no bacteria be transmitted via uncooked greens even more dangerous substances will be employed by industrial produce washing operation. If you can stomach the prewashed greens now, more power to you, but it won’t last long. You can either get sick from bacteria on spinach from Central America or the industrial strength chemicals they are washed with or you can buy local and in season.