Walter In Denver

More Regulation? Really, Why?

The recent E. coli outbreaks in the news have prompted calls for increased regulation of food producers. That may seem like a natural reaction, and nannyists are taking advantage of the situation. A couple of Sundays ago the Denver Post had this front page article:

E. Coli outbreaks produce new fears
It's not just meats but fruits, veggies. This year's onion and spinach scares reflect a rise in produceborne illnesses, bringing calls for more rules on food producers.

This year's onion and spinach scares reflect a rise in produce- borne illnesses, bringing calls for more rules on food producers. Fears over E. coli bacteria, for years, were focused on beef, but now outbreaks involving onions and spinach are prompting worries about the nation's produce markets.

The headline and sub tell you pretty much the whole story, but as I read the article I noticed that the only source referenced concerning the rise in illnesses is a representative of a certain advocacy group.

"Produce outbreaks have been consistently high since 1999," said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

"More people are getting sick," she said. "The size of the produce outbreaks are larger, sometimes twice as big as beef, poultry and seafood."

DeWaal's organization is urging the Food and Drug Administration to issue regulations to ensure safe production of fresh fruits and vegetables.

And-

The number of food-borne illnesses from outbreaks associated with fruits and vegetables has doubled over the past decade in the United States, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

There were 639 outbreaks associated with fruits and vegetables and nearly 31,500 cases of illness reported from 1990 to 2004, the center said.

The 1999 date is significant. Just a year before that the CDC began enhanced monitoring of E. coli. You can see from the following CDC table there was a significant increase in the number of reported E. coli cases in 1998.

There is a pronounced downward trend in cases after 1998.

This next table shows the trends for several illnesses caused by contamination, and continues to 2005.

It's pretty clear that you are less likely to catch E. coli or foodborne illness in general now than you were just a few years ago. I don't know that this has been mentioned by any major news sources, although it is vital to know when debating the course of future regulations.

As to the CSPI claim of an increase in produce related cases, it might be wise to keep in mind their less than trustworthy record. My guess would be that E. coli cases were just underreported before 1998.

Posted by Walter at December 22, 2006 01:20 PM