Closing the Gaps in Our Federal Food-Safety Net Center for Science in the Public Interest

in preparing this report. We also thank the scientists in government public health agencies who provided information and inspiration for this report. Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC. Since 1971, CSPI has been working to improve the public's health, largely through its work on nutrition and food-safety issues. CSPI is supported primarily by the 900,000 subscribers to its Nutrition Action Healthletter and by foundation grants. In the United States, foodborne illness has been estimated to cause 5,000 deaths and 76 million illnesses per year. Responsibility for food safety is divided among at least ten federal agencies involved in monitoring, surveillance, inspection, enforcement, outbreak management, research, and education. Despite recent improvements, significant gaps in the federal food-safety structure remain that put consumers at risk. To help fill one of these gaps, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) maintains a database of foodborne illness outbreaks that have been linked to specific foods. Findings CSPI tracked a total of 4,486 foodborne illness outbreaks, involving 138,622 individual cases that occurred between 1990 and 2003. The food categories most commonly linked to foodborne illness outbreaks were: • Seafood and seafood dishes: 899 outbreaks involving 9,312 cases of illness • Produce and produce dishes: 554 outbreaks involving 28,315 cases of illness • Poultry and poultry dishes: 476 outbreaks involving 14,729 cases of illness • Beef and beef dishes: 438 outbreaks involving 12,702 cases of illness • Eggs and egg dishes: 329 outbreaks involving 10,847 cases of illness Multi-ingredient foods (such as salads, pizza, and sandwiches) where the contaminated ingredient was not identified were linked to 812 outbreaks and 23,126 cases of foodborne illness. Foods regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), such as seafood, produce, eggs, and dairy, were associated with more than twice as many outbreaks as foods regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which include meats and poultry. Recommendations The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) should continue to improve outbreak reporting and surveillance. The CDC has made improvements in its reporting and surveillance system, but gaps still remain. For example, seven states don't have basic laboratory capacity. Those gaps are particularly troubling, given current concerns about bioterrorism. Congress should pass legislation to form a unified, independent food-safety agency with increased authority. Outbreaks occur, in part, because of inadequate regulatory authority, inadequate monitoring, and inadequate funding. …