From Boar’s Head deli meat and waffles to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, this year’s illness outbreaks — some deadly — and food recalls may have Americans wondering whether there are new risks in the U.S. food supply.
But experts say it’s business as usual when it comes to the complicated task of keeping food safe. The U.S.
ranks near the top for food safety out of 113 countries included in the Global Food Security Index, which measures aspects of food availability and quality, according to the Food and Drug Administration. “The U.S.
food supply remains one of the safest in the world,” FDA officials said in a statement. People might be alarmed at the “number of really high-profile recalls that affect a lot of people,” said Teresa Murray, who directs the consumer watchdog office for the consumer-interest advocacy group PIRG. “These are products that people eat on a regular basis,” she said.
On average, the two federal agencies that oversee the U.S. food supply — the FDA and the U.
S. Department of Agriculture — announce more than 300 food recalls and alerts each year. The FDA regulates about 80% of foods, including dairy products, fruit and vegetables, while the USDA regulates meat and poultry, among other foods.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually tracks about 800 foodborne illness outbreaks, in which two or more people are sickened by the same food or drink.
Most of the estimated 48 million cases of food poisoning each year a.
