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Stewart, flickr
If a food is regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, you should be able to assume it's both healthy and safe to eat, right? Unfortunately, no. Wave after wave of health and safety failures have turned the America's grocery stores and restaurants into roulette wheels of foodborne illnesses. Shockingly, some of our healthiest and most popular food choices are topping a new list of the 10 riskiest FDA-regulated foods compiled by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
"Weeeell, I eat healthy, fresh foods, so I'm probably not affected by all this mess." Umm, no. How many foods do you routinely eat from this list?
- Leafy greens
- Eggs
- Tuna
- Oysters
- Potatoes
- Cheese
- Ice cream
- Tomatoes
- Sprouts
- Berries
Right. That's a lot of contamination on our plates.
The top 10 foods were responsible for more than 1,500 separate, definable outbreaks of foodborne illness, reports the CSPI, including 50,000 reported illnesses ranging from temporary gastrointestinal distress to long-term disability and death. And those numbers really represent just the tip of the iceberg. The CDC estimates there are 38 unreported cases for every clinically diagnosed and reported case of salmonellosis. Gulp.
"Unfortunately, FDA is saddled with outdated laws and lacks the authority, tools and resources to fight unsafe food," concludes the CSPI. "Congress is working on legislation that makes much-needed changes to bring our food safety system into the 21st century." The FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced this week that they will begin working in concert to bring food safety issues to heel. Get an uncontaminated taste of food politics at ecoSalon's primer on current food safety politics for non-policy geeks.
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Thanks for the information you have given to me. I am eating 7 out of 10 foods. Now I know, thnaks for this article. By the way, anybody with an interest in bakery related media might be interested in getting a copy of the new coffee table book called Cake Wrecks. Cake Wrecks started life as a blog, and has now graduated into a full blown coffee table book, dedicated to cakes gone wrong, and it was recently highlighted by the New York Times. The entries range to typos in spelling, animal themed cakes gone horribly awry and the outright inappropriate unintentionally unleashed into the world via a frosted pastry. Most of the cakes featured are innocuous enough, but highly amusing. One wonders what the people who used faxless payday loans for a custom cake thought if they saw their order in Cake Wrecks.
hank you very much. The information was very nice and the service was excellent.
If you enjoy Thai foods or you want to learn more about them, try visiting the website, www.thai-food.in.th. It is only just beginning but I think you will eventually find it to be a great resource. It also explores a variety of Thai food facts in general.
That is funny. I eat most of these foods and never realized how contaminated these were. I do make sure I wash them thoroughly. I also run a related site on nutrition and workout routines, so check it out sometime.