There’s good news and bad news when it comes to food poisoning cases in the United States. On the good news front, food poisoning cases have fallen since 1999. On the bad news front, one in six Americans gets sick from food poisoning yearly and the decline in cases may be related to better reporting, not better care and handling of food. Annually, 48 million people get some form of food poisoning.
Said Dr. Chris Braden, acting director of the Division of Foodborne, waterborne, and Environmental Diseases at the CDC, “These illnesses are associated with billions in health care costs, and have a substantial human cost in severe illnesses and, in some cases, long-term health effects. These are preventable diseases. For many of these diseases we know what interventions work to prevent them and we need to do more to lower the impact of these diseases in the United States. If we could reduce foodborne illnesses by just 1 percent we could keep 500,000 people each year from getting sick from the foods that they eat.”
As someone who has had food poisoning a couple of times, let me tell you that food poisoning is no joke. There’s a reason why I throw leftovers away after a few days now. There’s a reason if food has been sitting out for awhile, it gets thrown away. There’s a reason why I’ve become a paranoid, food-fearing freak. Leftover pizza is not worth the resulting two days of horrible illness.
Tags: food poisoning, foodborne illnesses, food-borne illnesses, food poisoning cases drop, food poisoning hits 1 in 6 Americans, food poisoning rate declines, Dr. Chris Braden, Division of Foodborne Waterborne and Environmental Diseases, Centers for Disease Control
