US food safety ‘has not improved over the past three years.’ According to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US food safety system needs a major overhaul. According to Dr. David Acheson, associate commissioner for foods at the Food and Drug Administration, “The system needs to be modernized to address the challenges and changes of the globalization of the food supply and rapid distribution chains. F.D.A. needs to do more inspections.”

The CDC report reveals that in 2008, ‘16 out of every 100,000 people in the United States had laboratory-confirmed cases of salmonella infections. That translates into about 48,000 serious illnesses.’

According to the CDC, about ‘76 million people in the United States suffer foodborne illnesses each year, 300,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die.’ The most vulnerable sociodemographic groups are children younger than 4 and adults over age 50.

Some doctors assert, however, that food safety laws and regulations are well in place. It is the general citizenry that have to do their share in assuring food safety because it affects them, in the first place.

As Dr. Tim Jones, state epidemiologist in Tennessee, said, “You can only tell people so much to wash their cutting boards and wash their hands. I think we’re running out of things to do to make dramatic improvements.”

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Via The New York Times