Efforts to improve food safety in the United States "plateaued" in 2008, exposing the need for an overhaul of the nation's food safety system, Reuters quoted government health officials as saying today. Despite efforts to improve food safety in recent years, the number of foodborne infections remained steady in 2008 compared with the past three years, suggesting fundamental problems are not being solved. "Progress has plateaued. This indicates to us that further measures are needed to prevent more foodborne illness," Dr. Robert Tauxe of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told reporters in a telephone briefing. Overall, CDC identified 18,499 laboratory-confirmed cases of food poisoning in 2008 using FoodNet, a tracking system that looks at foodborne illness in 10 states, covering about 46 million people or 15 percent of the U.S. population. Salmonella infections were the most commonly diagnosed and reported, and their numbers were essentially unchanged compared with data from 2005-2007. The 2008 findings represent just a portion of the Salmonella Typhimurium infections caused by tainted peanuts and peanut products processed by the now bankrupt Peanut Corp of America, which has led to the biggest food recall in U.S. history. The outbreak, which began in September, forced the recall of more than 3,200 products and sickened more than 680 people in 46 states, perhaps killing nine. A series of other incidents involving pistachios, lettuce, peppers and spinach have eroded public confidence in food safety and renewed calls for change. The CDC estimates that each year 76 million Americans get food poisoning, more than 300,000 are sick enough to be hospitalized and 5,000 die.
