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Food Safety
Chair: Michael Greenberg, MD, MPH, FAACT
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Mission:
Contaminated food consumed in the United States causes an estimated 48 million illnesses, 128,000 hospitalizations, and 3,000 deaths annually. The occurrence of approximately 1,000 reported disease outbreaks (local, regional, and national) each year highlights the challenges of preventing these infections. However, most foodborne illnesses occur in persons who are not part of recognized outbreaks. The U.S. food supply is changing, with increased centralization of production, global sourcing of ingredients, and growth in the number of meals prepared outside the home. Outbreak investigations continue to identify long-standing problems for which implementation of effective solutions has been slow.
Most foodborne infections cause diarrheal illness, ranging from mild to severe. Also, persons in susceptible populations and some healthy persons can develop severe complications, such as hemorrhagic colitis, bloodstream infection, meningitis, joint infection, kidney failure, paralysis, miscarriage, and other problems. Beyond their health effects, foodborne illnesses can cause emotional and economic hardship; for example, Salmonella alone causes approximately 1 million foodborne infections and costs $365 million in direct medical expenditures annually, and the societal cost of a single fatal case of Escherichia coli (STEC) O157 infection has been estimated at $7 million.
The Food Safety SIG has been organized to:
- Provide a forum for those with an interest in the toxicological aspects of food safety;
- Bring awareness of the role that clinical toxicologists can play in assuring the safety and integrity of the food supply in the US as well as around the world;
- Expand the role that clinical toxicologists play in the public health arena;
- Develop and promulgate a research agenda with regard to the toxicological aspects of food safety;
- Provide a basis for interaction between clinical toxicologists and governmental, academic, private sector industry and public health entities with an interest in food safety
Members interested in participating in the Food Safety SIG are encouraged to contact SIG organizer, M. Greenberg, MD,MPH at mgreenbe@drexelmed.edu
Annotated Food Safety Links
www.fda.gov
FDA works with other government agencies and private sector organizations to help reduce the risk of tampering or other malicious, criminal, or terrorist actions on the food and cosmetic supply.
http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/
Food-related diseases affect tens of millions of people and kill thousands. Tracking single cases of foodborne illness and investigating outbreaks are critical public health functions in which CDC is deeply involved.
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/en/
Foodborne diseases remain responsible for high levels of morbidity and mortality in the general population, but particularly for at-risk groups, such as infants and young, children, the elderly and the immunocompromised. In order to reduce the incidence and economic consequences of foodborne diseases, the WHO Department of Food Safety and Zoonoses (FOS) has been assisting the Member States to establish and strengthen their programs for assuring the safety of food from production to final consumption. In this regard, WHO offers a unique capacity, through its commitment to health, to work collaboratively with government, industry and consumers, to strengthen and better focus national food safety efforts.
In May 2010 the World Health Assembly approved a new resolution on food safety: Advancing food safety initiatives (WHA63.3). This resolution will be used to update the current WHO Global Strategy for Food Safety.
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/en/
http://www.who.int/foodsafety/fs_management/INFOSAN_
note_Radionuclides_and_food_300311.pdf
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/
The Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) is the public health agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture responsible for ensuring that the nation's commercial supply of meat, poultry, and egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
http://usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome
http://extension.psu.edu/food-safety
http://www.epa.gov/agriculture/tfsy.html
http://www.cdc.gov/foodnet/
FoodNet is a collaborative program among CDC, 10 state health departments, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA-FSIS), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It has conducted active, population-based surveillance for laboratory-confirmed infections caused by Campylobacter, Listeria, Salmonella, STEC O157, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia since 1996; Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora since 1997; and STEC non-O157 since 2000. The surveillance area includes approximately 15% of the United States population (46 million persons)
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