3 days ago
ODU professor explains why public is seeing a surge of food recalls
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — There were nearly and it doesn't stop there, as already in the first half of this year, the FDA has reported a staggering 45.
Whole cucumbers were recalled last week, over , and that has now expanded to 16 states, including Virginia. Within the last 24 hours a salmon product from Aldi was scrapped from shelves due to a life-threatening allergen in three states out west. And earlier Wednesday, that may be contaminated with foreign material, specifically wood.
These are prime examples of why there's a growing public concern. It's making consumers question what's safe to eat, and above all creates the greater risk for the development of foodborne illnesses. But are the recalls actually occurring more often?
Professor Rishi Drolia, with the Old Dominion University biological sciences department, said food recalls may appear increased over time because of advanced technology used by the CDC, USDA and FDA to track foodborne illnesses.
'I think stricter regulations are very important for food safety and for public health,' he said. 'In the United States, there is a zero-tolerance policy for listeria monocytogenes. In some of the European countries, there is some tolerance. That means a certain amount of listeria can be still present in ready to eat foods, but here, the regulations are very strict.'
Those tighter regulations help to track the outbreak faster through frequent checks of the processing plants, environmental sampling and sanitization. The other issue at hand is what the masses are consuming, along with lifestyle changes.
'People do not have time to cook,' Drolia said. 'The amount of ready-to-eat food products consumed has increased over the years. If you see, a majority of these outbreaks happen in a lot of fast food or raw food. And so in both the cases, what happens is that the people are consuming … food that is never cooked.'
Drolia also stresses the importance of knowing if you are immunocompetent or immunocompromised. Many people have compromised immune systems and are not aware.
'For the majority of the foodborne pathogens, and including listeria monocytogenes here, the risk population is young, elderly, pregnant and immunocompromised,' he said. 'And so, if you are in one of those susceptible groups, that is when you could avoid high risk foods and those high risk foods are ready to eat meat that are uncooked, unpasteurized milk, raw vegetables, raw fruits [and] cheese that is made up of unpasteurized milk.
He said to also thoroughly cook your food and practice safe food handling processes in your kitchen to avoid cross contamination. Those precautionary measures can help reduce illnesses, due to foodborne pathogens.
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