The U.S. federal government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has scaled back its surveillance of germs that cause foodborne illnesses, according to news reports.
The agency will now focus on two bacteria that cause food poisoning, Salmonella and Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, per NBC News, through a program called FoodNet.
FoodNet — a collaboration between the CDC, several state health departments, and other federal agencies involved in food safety — will no longer track six pathogens it has monitored in the past: Campylobacter, Cyclospora, Listeria, Shigella, Vibrio, and Yersinia.
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Why Is the U.S. Government Tracking Fewer Sources of Foodborne Illness?
FoodNet surveillance was scaled back because funding hasn’t kept pace with the costs of running the program, according to NBC — not because outbreaks have declined.
“There is no scientific basis for reducing surveillance,” says Lewis Ziska, PhD, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University in New York City.
A CDC spokesperson told NBC that “reporting requirements and associated activities will allow FoodNet staff to prioritize core activities.”
Other surveillance systems can track the pathogens no longer being monitored by FoodNet, the CDC also told NBC. States can still report foodborne illnesses to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, for example, and the CDC has a separate tracking system to monitor listeriosis, the Listeria Initiative, according to NBC.
The CDC didn’t respond to requests from Everyday Health for comment.
What Is the Potential Impact of These Changes?
Although serious infectious outbreaks involving the food supply have been relatively uncommon in the past, CDC monitoring meant that when food poisoning outbreaks did occur, they were swiftly detected and addressed, says Scott Rivkees, MD, a physician-scientist and professor at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. Dr. Rivkees formerly served as the Florida state surgeon general.
“Any reduction in the ability to detect foodborne illnesses, [leading to] less reporting and response, has the potential to have a very serious effect on the public — both in terms of staying healthy, but also in terms of confidence in the safety of the food that we consume,” Rivkees says.
States may continue to monitor foodborne illnesses on their own, but cutbacks are also possible if funding becomes an issue, Dr. Ziska says.
How to Reduce Your Risk Of Foodborne Illness
Produce contamination accounts for nearly half of all reported cases of food poisoning, usually due to norovirus (commonly called the stomach flu). Contaminated meat and poultry are the most common culprit of food poisoning-related death, usually due to infection from Salmonella or Listeria.
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The CDC recommends four key strategies to minimize your risk of contracting a foodborne illness. These include:
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Clean Hands, Kitchen Surfaces, and Produce
Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with cold or warm soapy water before, during, and after preparing food and before eating. Scrub countertops, cutting boards, and utensils with hot soapy water after preparing each food item. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables before serving and eating them.
Avoid Cross-Contamination
Pack groceries to separate raw meat, poultry, and seafood from other items — and also keep these things separate from other foods in your refrigerator. Have a specific cutting board for raw meat, poultry, and seafood that you don’t use for other foods.
Use a Food Thermometer
You can’t always tell if food has been cooked safely just by looking at it, which is why the CDC recommends using a food thermometer and ensuring that you know the right temperatures for the different items you prepare. Steaks and other whole cuts of beef, for example, should be cooked to 145 degrees F, while ground meats should reach 160 degrees F. Cook poultry like chicken and turkey to at least 165 degrees F.
Who Is Most at Risk for Foodborne Illness?
The very young and very old are among those most at risk for foodborne illnesses, Rivkees says. Young children produce less of the stomach acid that’s needed to kill germs, while older adults can be susceptible to infections because their immune systems are less robust, Rivkees says.
Pregnant women and their developing infants are also vulnerable, Rivkees adds.
