Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Federal Government (CDC) have reduced its surveillance of germs which cause diseases of food, according to reports.
The agency will now focus on two bacteria which cause food poisoning, Salmonella and toxin shiga producer E. coliby NBC Newsvia a program called Foodnet.
Why does the US government follow fewer sources of food diseases?
Foodnet surveillance has been reduced because the funding has not followed the rate of program management costs, according to NBC – not because epidemics have decreased.
“There is no scientific basis for reducing surveillance,” said Lewis Ziska, PHD, an associate professor of environmental health sciences at the Mailman School of Public Health Health from Columbia University in New York.
A CDC spokesperson told NBC that “declaration requirements and associated activities allowed food staff to prioritize basic activities”.
Other surveillance systems can follow pathogens that are no longer monitored by Foodnet, CDC also told NBC. States can always report foods of food origin to the national surveillance system for notifiable diseases, for example, and the CDC has a separate monitoring system to monitor listeriosis, the Listeria initiative, according to the Nbc.
The CDC did not respond to requests for daily health for comments.
What is the potential impact of these changes?
Although serious infectious epidemics involving food supply has been relatively rare in the past, CDC surveillance meant that when epidemics of food intoxication occurred, they were quickly detected and addressed, explains Scott Rivkees, MD, doctor-scientific and professor at the Brown University School of Public Health in Providence, Rhode Island. Dr. Rivkees was previously the general surgeon of the state of Florida.
“Any reduction in the capacity to detect foods of food, [leading to] Less reporting and response, has the potential to have a very serious effect on the public – both in terms of healthy stay, but also in terms of confidence in food safety that we consume, ”explains Rivkees.
States can continue to monitor foods of food origin, but cuts are also possible if funding becomes a problem, says Dr. Ziska.
How to reduce your risk of food of food origin
Clean hands, kitchen surfaces and products
Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with cold or hot soapy water, during and after food preparation and before eating. The counters, the counters, the cutting boards and the utensils with hot soapy water after having prepared each food. Rinse fresh fruits and vegetables before serving and eat them.
Avoid cross contamination
Pack the grocery stores to separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other items – and also keep these separate things from other foods in your refrigerator. Have a specific cutting board for raw meat, poultry and seafood that you do not use for other foods.
Use a food thermometer
You cannot always say if the food has been baked safely just looking at it, which is why the CDC recommends using a food thermometer and ensuring that you know the right temperatures for the various items you are preparing. Steaks and other whole cups of beef, for example, should be cooked at 145 degrees F, while chopped meats should reach 160 degrees F. Cook poultry like chicken and turkey at least 165 degrees F.
Who most at risk of food of food origin?
Very young and very old are among those most at risk of foods of food origin, says Rivkees. Young children produce less gastric acid that is necessary to kill germs, while older adults can be sensitive to infections because their immune system is less robust, says Rivkees.
Pregnant women and their developing infants are also vulnerable, adds Rivkees.
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