Food poisoning levels steady
Published April 10, 2008 by CSBJ Staff
The Associated Press
ATLANTA _ Americans didn’t suffer more food poisoning last year over the previous year despite high-profile outbreaks involving peanut butter, pot pies and other foods.
But it’s not getting better, either. Although there have been significant declines in certain food-borne illnesses since the late 1990s, all the improvements occurred before 2004, federal health officials said in a report released Thursday.
A food safety advocacy group called the report discouraging,
“We don’t consider this a success at all. We want to see these numbers going down,” said Nancy Donley, president of Safe Tables Our Priority, which was founded by victims of food poisoning.
The new numbers were collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It partners with state health departments to check labs in 10 states to count confirmed food poisonings caused by intestinal bugs.
Salmonella remained the most common cause of food poisoning, causing about 6,800 lab-confirmed illnesses. That translates to a rate of about 15 cases for every 100,000 people.
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