Food culprits that dwarf mad-cow toll

By Alison Young
Knight Ridder Newspapers

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But mad-cow disease wasn't the culprit. Indeed, not a single American is known to have contracted the human form of the disease from eating food in this country.

Instead, salmonella, E. coli, listeria and other dangerous bacteria routinely take a huge toll on public health, yet receive little of the attention now focused on the beef from one Washington state Holstein found infected with mad-cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE.

"There is not enough attention to general food-borne diseases," said Dr. Christopher Braden, chief of outbreak response and surveillance in the food-borne disease branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "While bovine spongiform encephalopathy is of concern, it's not the greatest public-health concern we face in food-borne disease."

The toll from food-borne disease is staggering: 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year, according to CDC estimates.

Food-handling tips Suggestions from the government for minimizing illness: Don't choose meat in packaging that's torn or leaking, and never buy food past "sell-by" or "use-by" dates. Refrigerate perishable foods within two hours. Use an appliance thermometer to make sure your refrigerator is at 40 degrees or lower and the freezer is at zero degrees or lower. Keep raw meat, fish and their juices away from other food. Wash counters, cutting boards, knives and hands with hot, soapy water after cutting raw meat. Use a meat thermometer when cooking to ensure that bacteria are killed. Cook ground meats to 160 degrees, ground poultry to 165, whole poultry to 180, fresh pork to 160. Beef, veal, lamb steaks, roasts and chops should be cooked to 145. For facts about food safety, contact the Food and Drug Administration's Food Information Line (888-723-3366) or the Agriculture Department's Meat and Poultry Hotline (800-535-4555). The TTY number for the hearing-impaired is 800-256-7072. Recalls involving meat products are listed at (www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/ recalls/rec_intr.htm). Recalls of other foods are at (www.fda.gov/opacom/ 7alerts.html). — Knight Ridder Newspapers

Salmonella, for instance, caused 32,000 confirmed illnesses last year, and many times that number probably were sickened by the bacteria but never had tests to confirm it.

"Certainly if this were a disease hitting the radar screen and it was the first time it had ever been discovered and there were 30,000 cases reported, it would be an uproar," Braden said last week.

Organisms that consumers may never have heard of cause many illnesses.

Campylobacter, a bacteria associated with raw or undercooked poultry, causes about 2 million cases of diarrhea, nausea and vomiting each year and sometimes causes life-threatening infections or triggers rare immune-system responses.

Listeria monocytogenes, a cold-loving bacteria found in ready-to-eat lunchmeats and hot dogs, causes about 2,500 illnesses a year, and most of those people are so ill they are hospitalized. About 500 will die, the CDC says.

Brad Matthews of Raleigh, N.C., no longer takes for granted that the food he eats is safe.

At 27, he has been unable to work since July 2001, when he was hospitalized during a bout of food-borne illness and developed Reiter's syndrome, a painful inflammation of the joints believed to be triggered by the bacteria.

"I was an administrative assistant just right out of college," Matthews said. "My future looked bright, and it just happened out of the blue." The pain in his joints has made it impossible to live normally, he said. He can't drive, walk his dog or play the guitar.

The public needs to pay more attention, Matthews said. "I don't think people really care. I knew about these food-borne diseases, but I thought to myself it wouldn't happen to me," he said.

Food-safety advocates hope the furor over mad-cow disease and calls for reform will help focus the attention of policy-makers and the public on broader issues in farming and food manufacturing that could help reduce the number of Americans sickened by what they eat.

"I don't think mad cow is a public-health crisis," said Carol Tucker Foreman, an assistant secretary of agriculture in charge of food safety during the Carter administration. "I do think we have a serious public-health problem with regard to food-borne illness. And it's not just meat and poultry, but fresh fruit and vegetables, eggs and fish."

Foreman, who heads the Food Policy Institute at the Consumer Federation of America, said the mad-cow situation — and efforts by regulators to find the Holstein's birth herd — demonstrated the need for a system that allowed cattle to be traced.

"We've urged the (Agriculture Department) to establish an animal trace-back system for 20 years," she said. "Not only do you need to trace back an animal that has signs of mad-cow disease, but you also could trace back an animal that has a gut full of E. coli 0157:H7."

Advocates also have urged for years that the USDA and the Food and Drug Administration be given the authority to order companies to recall tainted products. The current system allows only for voluntary company recalls, Foreman said.

As the population of the United States ages, the risk from common food-borne illnesses will increase. Those most at risk have compromised immune systems, including people with AIDS, lupus and transplanted organs. Also at higher risk are elderly people, young children and pregnant women, who may have miscarriages if they eat foods contaminated with listeria monocytogenes.

Food-industry officials said consumers needed to do their part to make sure the food they ate is safe.

"Salmonella, listeria, E. coli, they can all be easily controlled with simple procedures at home," said Stephanie Childs, a spokeswoman for the Grocery Manufacturers of America, the leading trade group for brand-name foods. Cooking foods thoroughly, not allowing raw meats to contaminate other foods and washing hands will go a long way to keeping people healthy, she said.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company