The US Is Not Alone. No Matter Where You Live, Reports Of Food-Borne Illness Outbreaks Are Likely To Increase
Not surprisingly, as our ability to detect food-borne illness outbreaks continues to improve (as a result of increased awareness, better surveillance and more precise testing), we are detecting more outbreaks. The increase, in my view, is a result of our enhanced ability to identify those illnesses which, in years past, simply slipped “under the radar.”
Although some suggest broadly that outbreaks are increasing because today’s food companies (as opposed to yesterday’s food companies) don’t care about food safety, the theory is a bit hard to swallow. Given the incredible media and regulatory attention directed in recent years to food safety, most large companies have devoted incredible resources to improve the safety of their products. And, I personally believe, we’re doing better than ever.
It is also hard, frankly, to overlook that fact that an increasing number of outbreaks are being detected in other parts of the world as well.
Beginning in 2005, for instance, the European Food Safety Authority ("EFSA") began collecting, analyzing and publishing outbreak data submitted by its 22 member states. The data confirmed that, in 2007, the EU experienced a total of 5,609 reported food-borne illness outbreaks. Although down only slightly from 2006, this actually represented a significant increase from just a few years earlier (when the number was zero), because data wasn’t being collected and reports weren’t being generated. Click on the following link to view a copy of the 2007 Community Summary Report on Food-borne Outbreaks.
The results of the the 2007 Community Report is also interesting. In the EU (like here in the US) Salmonella continues to be one of the most frequent causes of food-borne illness outbreaks. Of the total reported outbreaks in 2007, Salmonella accounted for 2,201 outbreaks, or four out of every ten.
In turn, viruses (such as Norovirus) were reported to be the second most frequent cause of outbreaks in the EU. Altogether, viruses accounted for 668 outbreaks, and sources were reported to include crustaceans, shellfish, molluscs and buffets.
Campylobacter was next in line, causing 461 outbreaks. Common sources included broiler and other meats.
In turn, bacterial toxins, such as those produced by Bacillus Cereus, Clostridium Perfringens and Staphylococcus, caused 458 outbreaks. Numerous outbreaks involving other bacteria, such as Listeria and E. coli O157:H7 were reported as well.
Does this mean that, suddenly, European companies have collectively decided to give up on food safety? Unlikely. Rather, it merely demonstrates that, wherever you live, as food-borne illness outbreak surveillance improves, we will begin to see outbreaks that would otherwise have been missed.
Indeed, even the EFSA concedes that the numbers of total reported outbreaks in the EU are expected to increase. This is because the "reporting systems" in the 22 member states vary significantly and, as a result, are simply not capturing every outbreak. In those member states with more effective national monitoring systems (like Germany), however, the reported number of outbreaks were expectedly much higher.
In any event, as reporting and surveillance continue to improve throughout the EU, we will likely see (just like here at home) the total number of reported outbreaks increase significantly. And, while the increasing numbers of outbreaks, coupled with resulting media coverage, will continue to motivate entire industries to "do better," such results should not suggest that most food companies (whether based in New York or Paris) are simply failing to do anything at all.
The answer, I suppose, depends upon who you ask.
