Foodborne illness

Foodborne illness or food poisoning is caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. Such contamination usually arises from improper handling, preparation or storage of food. Foodborne illness can also be caused by adding pesticides or medicines to food, or by accidentally consuming naturally poisonous substances like poisonous mushrooms or reef fish. Contact between food and pests, especially flies, rodents and cockroaches, is a further cause of contamination of food.

Political issues

United Kingdom

Since the 1970s, key changes in UK food safety law have taken place following serious outbreaks of food poisoning. These included the death of 19 patients in the Stanley Royd Hospital outbreak http://briandeer.com/social/stanley-royd.htm; and the death of 17 people in the 1996 Wishaw outbreak of E.coli O157 http://www.scotland.gov.uk/deleted/library/documents-w4/pgr-00.htm, which was a precursor to the establishment of the Food Standards Agency which, according to Tony Blair in the 1998 white paper A Force for Change Cm 3830 "would be powerful, open and dedicated to the interests of consumers". There remain questions, however, over the nature of any agency funded by a government which has not an insignificant say in staffing.

Related Topics:
1996 - Food Standards Agency - Tony Blair - 1998 - White paper

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United States

In 2001, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) petitioned the United States Department of Agriculture to require meat packers to remove spinal cords before processing cattle carcasses for human consumption, a measure designed to lessen the risk of infection by variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The petition was supported by the American Public Health Association, the Consumer Federation of America, the Government Accountability Project, the National Consumers League, and Safe Tables Our Priority. This was opposed by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the National Renderers Association, the National Meat Association, the Pork Producers Council, sheep raisers, milk producers, the Turkey Federation, and eight other organizations from the animal-derived food industry. This was part of a larger controversy regarding the United States' violation of World Health Organization proscriptions to lessen the risk of infection by variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease http://www.rense.com/general46/usfup.html.

Related Topics:
United States Department of Agriculture - Spinal cord - Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - World Health Organization

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