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sometimes tomatoes, sometimes lettuce, sometimes peppers, and most
recently peanut butter, pistachio nuts, cookie dough, and beef. Some-
times the cause is unsanitary conditions in an American processing plant;
other times the bacteria came from one of the many other nations whose
food we import. The number of produce-related outbreaks of food-borne
illness more than doubled between 1999 and 2004. One-quarter of the
population is sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die each year
from something they ate.
24 There are an estimated 76 million cases of
food-borne illness every year, most of which are unreported or are not
traced to the source. Fruits and vegetables are the most likely products
to be the source of the contamination because they are commonly eaten
uncooked; live and harmful organisms can enter the body unimpeded
(see table 5.3).
Actually every type of food we eat contains items that are not part of
the product. The FDA accepts these items as impossible to economically
remove. A certain percentage of “natural contaminants” is considered
acceptable because there is no other practical alternative. These include
rodent hair and excretions, maggots, parasites, and fl y eggs, among other
less-than-desirable animal products. The FDA considers these defects to
be only “aesthetic” or “offensive to the senses” rather than harmful. It
is explained in the FDA booklet The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels
of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods that Present No Health
Hazards for Humans (2009). Tomato juice, for example, may average
Table 5.3
Illnesses caused by contaminated foods, 2009
Food product
Number of outbreaks
Reported cases of illness
Leafy greens
363
13,568
Eggs
352
11,163
Tuna
268
2,341
Oysters
132
3,409
Potatoes
108
3,659
Cheese
83
2,761
Ice cream
74
2,594
Tomatoes
31
3,292
Sprouts
31
2,022
Berries
25
3,397
Source: “The Ten Riskiest Foods Regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration,” Center for Science in the Public Interest, 2009.
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