Food For Thought: Rise of Food Poisoning in the US

 Conversation Starters

I subscribe to a terrific Italian language learning platform in which the creators designed a twenty four-seven Virtual Living Room allowing students across the globe to struggle to talk to each other in Italian. One of the topics that arises frequently with me (perhaps because when we identify our native country and describe ourselves, I usually say that I love to cook and that I had a kitchen store in the US for many years) is the deplorable state of American food. There is ample conversational turf on this topic! Obviously,  big American chains have made inroads in Italy and other EU countries –  but they are under the yoke of EU food regulations, which are, I am happy to say, much stiffer than in the US. Side note: France has the highest number of McDonalds, followed closely by the UK, Germany and then Italy. 

We find no shortage of other topics that cast the US in a better light. I like to bring up our music, comedy shows and films, which I think generally are pretty awesome. And that usually starts an Italian conversation about students’ favorite films, curiosity about stand-up comedy in the US and the distinguishing differences in our country music. Still, conversations often return to questions about food. Recently, some mass food recalls in the US popped up on my Italian newsfeed. They remind me of the frightful EU Mad Cow Disease scandal in 2001. After that, stricter third-party inspection and rigorous regulations were installed and written into the current EU law books. 

Problems On The Home Turf

But the increasing frequency of articles about food poisoning in the US is shocking for a country that is supposed to be so health conscious. In the latter part of the 20th century, domestic food-borne illness was pretty rare and usually specific to improper food handling at picnics, family reunions and similar social events. Now such incidents are nationwide, where staggering quantities of contaminated food have to be recalled – from infant formula, to chicken, beef, pork, dairy and now onions.   I remember the scandal in the early 90s about the food poisoning of hundreds of people  at Jack In The Box – four children died in that incident. Federal investigators discovered the particular bacteria was a deadly form of E. Coli, and now all meat products are tested for it, and it is illegal to sell foods contaminated with it.   Yet that same strain of E. Coli is the culprit in the current McDonald’s Quarter Pounder debacle — which has sickened dozens and killed one person so far. News accounts to date indicate that the contamination is confined to the US. According to an article in Politico,  now there are over nine million cases of food-borne illness each year in the US, with over 50,000 hospitalizations and 1,350 deaths. 

Just this year, there were nine major  food-borne illness outbreaks that had to be investigated by the CDC. Boars Head (whose executives are shrouded in secrecy) had to close down a plant that had flagrant violations and the current McDonald’s  Quarter Pounder calamity  (tainted onions) are just two that have had fatal results.

Spanners In The Works

Several factors play a role in this peculiar rise in domestic food-borne illness. One is the way that we shop for food, which certainly deserves examination in another post. Another is the increased centralization of food production, processing and distribution. We as consumers are at the mercy of a few food companies: Pepsico, Tyson Foods and Nestle are the top three, followed closely by Archer Daniels, JBS USA and Cargill. These companies all have a global presence as well.  Their power in influencing legislation and outright evasion of food safety laws is well documented. 

The third though, is the diminution of Federal regulation and third-party inspection. The latest blow (particularly in the Boars Head disaster) is the handiwork of the Secretary of Agriculture from the previous administration — Sonny Perdue (not to be confused with  Purdue Chicken products). Sonny, who left a trail of corruption in Georgia, engineered the NSIS or New Swine Slaughter Inspection system, at the behest of the industry’s big players. Pork product plants could opt in to a new system, which reduced the number of Federal meat inspectors in pork plants by 40% and then removed the remaining inspectors,  according to a report by The Hill. Of the 17 pork processing centers in the US, 11 have already opted for the NSIS pilot program.

In their place, a smaller number of company employees — who are not required to receive any training — would conduct the ‘sorting’ tasks. The rule would allow companies to design their microbiological testing programs to measure food safety rather than requiring companies to meet the same standard.

Another part of this modernized pork-processing system allows for speeding up the process of cutting, prepping, packing (and inspecting) pork for sale to consumers. The “trials” have been extended with the full-throated backing of major pork-slaughtering companies. This will lower the price of pork products and benefit the consumer and make US pork products more competitive in a global market, they tell us. 

We are second to the EU in pork exports (albeit our largest pork-producing company in the US, Smithfield, is now owned by a mainland Chinese company) and our pork producers are constrained here by “excessive” EU regulations from exporting more of what we have to offer. Pork is far from the only or even the worst problem.  Again, think McDonald’s and onions. In general, the companies in charge of what we consume do not have product quality and health in mind, but rather focus on expanding their market share.  With so many foxes in charge of so many hen-houses, so to speak, we as consumers are going to have to be more diligent about using our purchasing power to improve food safety. 

Thoughts From Afar  

When we lived in Alexandria, it took us a long time to understand how important our meat choices were. We finally ended up buying our meat products from either MOMs, the Organic Butcher or from a small Farmer’s Market on Sherwood Hall Lane. And, yes, the cost to us was higher and we ate less meat.  Every once in a while, a certain steak eater I know would look longingly at an inexpensive 10 pack of New York Strip steaks at Costco. A quick bit of phone research would show why the cost was so cheap.  I regret not being able to vote in local and state elections (absentee voters can vote only in  Federal elections) because we were just beginning to follow the voting patterns of our state and local politicians and how they played out on what’s on our plate.  That is a connection worth watching.