In August alone, there have been 13 FDA investigations on common food-product related disease outbreaks, including outbreaks of E. coli, Listeria, Salmonella, and Cyclospora.
Some of these outbreaks have had major effects on a multitude of companies and foods, such as onions which have been found to carry E. coli. This has caused major chains such as McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendy’s to take onions off the menu, and throw away foods that have come in contact with them.
“Just the briefest of moments of contact between containers, materials, tools, or the foods themselves could lead to outbreaks like the ones we’re seeing right now,” biology teacher Katilyn Parson said.
This has caused a large ripple effect on other chains as well, because even stores that only sell one or two items with onions, like KFC or Pizza Hut, are forced to analyze their entire stock to make sure it hasn’t been contaminated either.
“The reason things like this fly under the radar so often is that testing can be very expensive,” food regulation manager Dr. Jeanette Carrington said. “ It’s not a simple process to check every single item for contamination, so companies make sure to only test what the FDA requires, which can lead to some slips in the system.”
However, now that the outbreak has been revealed many fast food companies have taken measures to dispose of the related produce from Taylor Farms, which is the farm that supplied the onions containing E. coli.
While this information is useful after the fact, experts find it concerning how many outbreaks have been discovered recently, and the widespread effect they have had on major fast food chains.
“The testing of food for contamination is a constantly developing process with the new technology created every year, but it still has cracks,” Dr. Carrington said. ‘You cannot test every single piece of food and not have the population starve waiting for it. It’s just not economical.”
But the E. coli onion scare isn’t the only recent outbreak of disease in a major food group. Back in August there was a large outbreak of Salmonella in cucumbers, and later, in October, there was an outbreak of Listeria in chicken found at Trader Joe’s and Aldi’s.
Even if the product makes it past initial inspection without infection, there is always a chance for it to get contaminated on its way to the shelves. The recent Salmonella outbreak in eggs is proof of that. While there was nothing wrong with them originally, they stayed on the shelf far past their expiration date, resulting in 65 hospitalizations before they were finally recalled.
Many people are starting to worry about every food they eat, about whether or not it may result in harm to them or their family
“Me and my husband both have pretty demanding jobs, so either I order my children fast food or they order it themselves,” long time customer of McDonald’s Madeline Crystal said. “I worry that one day I’ll have to rush them to the hospital after they ate something bad, which is a worry I never thought I’d have.”
One of the most common types of food poisoning is Salmonella.
“Salmonella is rarely a major problem, because it is rarely deadly, the most you’ll get is vomiting, fever, and diarrhea,” Dr. Carrington said. “Unless you get incredibly dehydrated, most people just ride it out, E.coli and Listeria, on the other hand, are a much larger problem.”
These outbreaks don’t just cause a stomach ache or vomiting, these contaminated foods could lead to serious health problems or even death. While it’s easy to let something usually equated to food poisoning fall into the background with everything else happening, it’s important to catch these types of issues before they arise, and hopefully prevent them altogether.
In order to prevent unnecessary illness and deaths, scientists say the food testing system has to be remodeled. Scientists have been fighting for this for years, but without the money to back them have been fruitless. The FDA can only do so much. The CDC estimates that there are 38.4 million episodes caused by foodborne illness every year in the U.S alone.
“It can be easy to forget how easily a single bad piece of food can hurt you until you eat something that claimed to be safe and suddenly you can’t see straight,” Dr. Carrington said. “That is why quality food control is so important, especially recently when the food you’re eating could have come from anywhere, and be contaminated by anything.”
