Washington, July 13, 1995 -- As part of the federal government's campaign to improve the safety of the nation's food supply, three federal agencies and health departments in five states today announced a program to collect more precise information about the numbers of people who are affected by harmful bacteria in food.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that from 5 million to 33 million people become ill from bacterial pathogens in food each year, and as many as 9,000 die annually. These numbers reflect the magnitude of the problems associated with food pathogens but are precise enough evaluate the impact of food safety program changes.
Working with state health departments, USDA's, FSIS, FDA and CDC are collecting and analyzing detailed information about diarrheal diseases, especially those caused by E.coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella. Data will be collected from five "project site" locations throughout the country -- in northern California, Oregon, Minnesota, Connecticut, and Atlanta, GA.
The project will investigate the incidence of diarrheal disease and attempt to learn about the risk factors for these disease, specifically targeting dairy products, fruits, vegetables, and seafood, which are regulated by FDA, and meat, poultry, and eggs, which are regulated by USDA. The National Academy of Sciences has recommended development of such a system.
"The test of our food safety initiative at USDA is whether we are successful in preventing illnesses associated with meat and poultry products. The data from this project will enable us to monitor our progress and continually improve our regulatory system," said Michael R. Taylor, USDA acting under secretary for food safety.
"Gaining solid data on the transmission of these foodborne illnesses will help public health agencies and industry know what to do to prevent them. This strategy has worked with Listeria, and we believe it can work here," said FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D.
"This project is an important addition to CDC's ongoing efforts to prevent and control foodborne diseases. It will help quantitate the occurrence of sporadic cases of foodborne infections in the United States and determine how the organisms that cause these infections are transmitted," said Mitchell L. Cohen, Director of CDC's Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Disease in the National Center for Infection Diseases.
"State health departments have been actively involved in the investigation of foodborne illness for many years. We welcome this federal-state collaboration on what is an important and growing public health problem in this country," said Michael Osterholm, Minnesota state epidemiologist, speaking on behalf of the project sites.
Federal health officials said the project will for the first time provide more precise national data to use in evaluating the effectiveness of current and future food safety programs.
Currently, not all states provide CDC with the same information on the incidence of foodborne illness. Therefore, the data cannot be used to precisely measure the impact of changes in food safety and production systems. Public health professionals have sought more scientific data gathering for years.
Epidemiologists working with participating laboratories in the newly designated foodborne illness project site areas will provide a framework for identifying current and emerging trends in foodborne illnesses, food safety officials said. Over time, the data collected will permit agencies to link specific foodborne illnesses with certain products and determine whether control and prevention programs require refinements or change.
"The data collected in this unprecedented project are essential to the long-term development of a science-based system to protect public health," said Dr. Glenn Morris, director of the FSIS Epidemiology and Emergency Response Program. "This initiative shows the USDA commitment to a food safety strategy for meat and poultry products that is built on the best possible science."
"When CDC, FDA, USDA, and the state health departments can come together sharing expertise and resources, there is every likelihood that we'll succeed," said Dr. I Kaye Wachsmuth, FDA's Deputy Director for Programs. "A recently published article describing the reduction of illnesses and deaths due to Listeria illustrates the success of active surveillance monitoring, public health collaborations, and industry effects. We are optimistic and enthusiastic about this new and major undertaking."
FDA and FSIS officials note that data generated by this project will have broad uses, including continued evaluation of their proposed Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems for improved seafood, meat, poultry, and egg inspection.
Release No. 0561.95