Europe’s Food Poisoning Outbreak: Reaping What It Has Sown

Modern farming operations — especially the larger ones — employ strict standards and safeguards designed to keep food free of pathogens. But growers of fresh produce cannot ensure that their harvests will be completely safe all the time. During the past few years, the American food supply has experienced a number of high-profile incidents of contamination of beef, fresh produce and processed foods, including Mexican peppers, California lettuce and peanuts from a Georgia processing plant. Federal officials have expressed concern: “We recognize that we have reached a plateau in the prevention of foodborne disease, and there must be new efforts to develop and evaluate food-safety practices from the farm to the table,” said Robert Tauxe, the deputy director of the CDC’s Division of Foodborne, Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases.  Read more...