By: Mansel W. Griffiths
FOOD SAFETY
The changing face of
food safety
According to the latest estimates from the CDC, about 48 million Americans succumb to foodborne infections each year and of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die.
24 BIOTECHNOLOGY FOCUS July/August 2013
As well as the impact on health, foodborne illness has significant economic impact. When the full costs associated with this burden of illness are taken into account, the estimated annual cost to the U.S. economy is about $78 billion. The estimates for Canada suggest that the number of cases of foodborne illness each year amount to about 4 million with an associated cost approaching $10 billion. Canada has witnessed a number of significant outbreaks of foodborne illness in the past five years, including the listeriosis outbreak linked to the consumption of ready-to-eat meat produced by Maple Leaf Foods, which resulted in 23 deaths and, more recently, the contamination of beef with E. coli O157:H7 produced by XL Foods. The increase in high profile outbreaks both here and in the U.S. have led to significant changes in the laws governing food safety and has prompted the Canadian government to re-think the way in which the food industry is inspected. There has been a shift away from foods of animal origin being the major vehicles for foodborne infection and it is now generally accepted that, at least in North America, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the majority of outbreaks. Some recent examples of large outbreaks attributable to fruits and vegetables are the outbreak of listeriosis linked to cantaloupe melon produced on one farm in Colorado, which resulted in at least 147 people in 28 states becoming ill and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed at least 32 deaths and 1 miscarriage were also associated with the outbreak. It is also now recognized that viruses, particularly norovirus, are the leading cause of foodborne illness. Indeed, in a study of milk borne cases of illness in the U.S. between 1993 and 2008, 44 per cent of outbreaks associated with pasteurized dairy products were the result of contamination with norovirus. More recently, frozen berries sold at Costco stores across several U.S. states have been linked to 143 cases of hepatitis A, with 63 individuals requiring hospitalization.
But the question is often asked: is foodborne illness on the increase? With more than 250 known causes of foodborne illness and surveillance being performed on only a small fraction of those, the question is almost impossible to answer. What is obvious is that food safety is going to be a primary concern of the food industry for many years to come. The reasons for this are many and include changes to the way food is produced and distributed. We are seeing the emergence of larger distribution networks, which means that if something goes wrong a lot of people will be affected. Does that mean locally sourced or organic food is safer? Probably not, it just means that the impact of the infection will be smaller and it may be more difficult to attribute a source. In fact a large outbreak caused by E. coli O157:H7 resulted from contamination of organically produced spinach in the Salinas Valley of California. We also have yet to determine how climate change will impact food safety. We have seen the migration of animal diseases further northward as evidenced by the emergence of blue-tongue disease in cattle in the UK. and even in Scandinavia. The virus that causes the illness is usually associated with warm climates as it is killed by frost. Consumers are also demanding “healthier foods” and the move to reduce salt in foods reflects this demand. Other constituents of food that have antimicrobial effects, such as fat, sugar and preservatives, are also on the hit list. Thus, we must be careful that these changes do not result in riskier foods for the consumer. Not only are the appetites of
