Staggering Costs of Foodborne Illness in Arizona and Beyond
by Karyn Zoldan on Mar. 02, 2010, under A Tisket, A Tasket, Health
Fresh produce and foodborne illness
The very thought of a foodborne illness makes my stomach churn.
Every year, 76 million Americans are sickened, 325,000 hospitalized and 5,000 die from consuming contaminated food. The at-risk demographic for foodborne illness include toddlers and young children, the elderly, and people whose immune systems have been compromised by disease or treatments like chemotherapy. Not only does foodborne illness threaten health and negatively impacts quality of life but also costs the United States $152 billion annually, according to a recent report from the Produce Safety Project, a Pew Charitable Trust at Georgetown University.
These health-related costs include medical costs such as hospital services, doctor services, and pharmaceutical drugs. Quality-of-life losses cover costs associated with deaths, pain, suffering, and functional disability. This estimate encompasses both costs to the person made ill as well as the costs to others in society.
Although the majority of costs accrue to unknown pathogens, infections from well known pathogens have large measurable costs. Campylobacter-related costs totaled more than an estimated $18.8 billion. Costs linked to Salmonella reached an estimated $14.6 billion and
Listeria-associated costs were an estimated $8.8 billion.
The report also estimates the cost of illnesses associated with produce, which is linked to the largest number of outbreaks involving FDA-regulated foods. For E. coli O157:H7, 39% of outbreaks and 54% of illnesses linked to FDA regulated food items were attributable to produce. Using data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the report estimates that foodborne illness costs related to produce total $39 billion per year.
The report ranks states according to their estimated total costs related to foodborne illness. Arizona was not ranked in the top ten states. For example, California ranked the highest at $18.6 billion. The second highest ranking state was Texas at $11.3 billion. Arizona’s cost was $2.9 billion.
The report also ranks states according to their estimated per-capita costs related to foodborne illness. The state with the highest per-capita foodborne illness costs per year were Hawaii with $553 and Mississippi with $543. Arizona’s per capita cost was $464.
Finally, the report ranks states according to their estimated total cost per case of foodborne illness. Again, Hawaii had the highest costs per case at $2,008 and Florida at $1,984. Arizona’s cost per case was $1,829 but was not in the top ten.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been voluntary recalls for beef, cheese, soy grits, soup base, pecans, Italian sausage, ground red pepper, ground black pepper, granola bars, chicken pot pie, dog food, instant noodles, and baby food to name a few.
In 2009, there was a bill – HR 875 called Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. It would divide the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) into two separate agencies – the FDA and the FSA (Food Safety Administration). The bill went nowhere.
That doesn’t sound like a bad idea especially if it will make both agencies more efficient, right?
But it depended on whom you talk to. The Organic Consumers trade association was against this bill as was small farmers who worried that government regulation of food production would adversely affect small farms selling at farmers markets and local food co-ops, which can’t absorb the possible costs of abiding by regulation as easily as big food producers can.
Currently, there’s another bill S. 510 called the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act with scale-appropriate regulation for local, sustainable agriculture that does not interfere with existing organic regulations.
Photo: Courtesy of Free Foto
