Jill Kohl was a healthy young woman in early August 2006.
A marathon runner, the 2000 Wahlert High School graduate was attending graduate school in Milwaukee. She ran regularly and was careful to eat a diet of healthy foods.
But just a few days after eating a spinach salad late that month, Kohl started to experience flu-like symptoms.
On Sept. 4, 2006, Kohl went to the emergency room and was told that she probably had a common case of food poisoning, and shortly after passing out she was hospitalized.
A weakened Kohl endured numerous tests, and doctors eventually identified the illness as E. coli. She was asked to write down everything she had eaten in the past week, especially meat and dairy products that might have been consumed raw. Kohl told them about the spinach salad, but the health officials dismissed that as the cause.
Just days later, the high-profile Dole spinach recall was being covered by nearly every media outlet in the country, and Kohl's suspicions proved correct.
As the days passed, doctors watched over Kohl closely. She
| USDA:Food Safety: Food Storage, Preparation & Handling
Food Detectives: Fight Bac - flash game Be Smart. Keep Foods Apart. Don't Cross-Contaminate. |
"That's what is so scary about it; there's nothing they can do. They just have to monitor it," she said.
After 17 days in the hospital, Kohl was released with just 8 percent of normal kidney function.
She has grown stronger since her battle with
E. coli, completing two marathons. But the damage has left its mark. Kohl said she must visit a doctor every six months to check her kidneys. It's likely she will continue this routine for the rest of her life.
A superior food supply
It has often been said that Americans enjoy the safest food supply in the world.
But in recent years, widely publicized recalls for everything from peanut butter to pot pies have some consumers wondering how these potentially contaminated products slip through the cracks of the U.S. food safety system.
In short, how safe is our food?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million people get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 Americans die each year from foodborne illness.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that the 2006 spinach case resulted in 205 confirmed illnesses and three deaths.
In February 2007, the administration warned consumers not to eat certain jars of Peter Pan peanut butter or Great Value peanut butter due to risk of contamination of salmonella.
Most recently, California-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. recalled 143 million pounds of ground beef processed during the past two years because the cattle did not receive complete and proper inspection, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service. It was the largest beef recall in U.S. history.
Who's the boss?
"I think it's hard for (consumers); life is busy," Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey said. "You're about making a living and taking care of your kids and getting them to the next event, so you don't spend an hour a day figuring out what they do about food safety. You just assume it's safe."
Under authority of a federal act, the USDA inspects and monitors all meat, poultry and egg products sold in interstate and foreign commerce. The FDA oversees the safety of all other food products.
A common misconception is that the FDA has the authority to order a recall. However, there are very rare instances when the agency has that level of control. Generally, it simply sends a written request to the firm that produces the food item and asks for a recall.
By not having a single department to oversee the food supply, it can cause consumers confusion about what is being watched by whom.
"With food safety, there are so many different agencies involved, it is sort of fragmented," said Tim Link, environmental sanitarian for the city of Dubuque.
"We have growers, manufacturers and distributors who have a global impact, so if there is a recall, it tends to be large."
Northey said each industry has its own guidelines regarding food safety and transportation.
Most consumers might not think about the number of places their milk has traveled between the cow and the carton, but Northey said great care is taken to ensure the product is safe. For example, if raw milk is being moved down a pipeline near another pipeline that is coming out of a pasteurizer, it is crucial that the person in charge makes sure there is no backflow and no way for the two products to come in contact with one another, the ag secretary said recently while taking a tour of the Swiss Valley Farms plant in Dubuque.
"What they're doing is looking at the potential areas where there is a problem with risk and how do you minimize that risk," he said. "So anytime you're handling it, anytime you're moving a product, how do you minimize the chance of risk?"
Nancy Degner, executive director of the Iowa Beef Industry Council, said millions of dollars are invested into the technology used to keep the country's beef safe, but no matter how much is spent, the system will never be without flaws.
"We have a highly-regulated meat industry in this country," she said. "Yet it all depends on people, and people aren't perfect."
Public health veterinarians visually inspect all cattle before slaughter. Inspectors also are responsible for conducting an examination of every animal after it is slaughtered to identify signs of disease or unwholesome condition, according to the Beef Checkoff Program. The inspection system continues throughout the processing segment of the industry.
Northey said eliminating the risk for a food-related illness is the first line of defense. But should one be detected, the second line of defense is to find it, destroy the contaminated food products and then minimize any risk of it happening again.
"Historically, we have been able to have recalls and other things that give some confidence to folks that if there is a problem, they found it, they got rid of it and I don't have to worry about the rest of the stuff that's on the market," he said.
Food fears
Not everyone agrees the U.S. food safety standards are adequate.
Leaders of the Organic Consumer Association point out that the European Union doesn't buy most U.S. beef products because the cattle are treated with growth hormones.
Degner said, in her opinion, the European Union is using growth hormones as a trade barrier that could soon be reversed as the union's beef supply is suffering. The agencies that oversee beef products would not approve the use of the hormones if the beef were not safe for consumption, she said.
The Organic Consumer Association aims to educate Americans about the health risks associated with some foods, especially those that have been altered to expand their shelf lives.
Association director Ronnie Cummins said he is encouraged by the growing organic sector in the United States and hopes that it is a sign of consumers' awareness regarding chemicals, pesticides and other substances.
"The reason the organic food sector is booming is because the public certainly doesn't think conventional food is the safest in the world," he said.
Although consumers generally pay more for organic products, Cummins said many are happy to pay the price in dollars and cents rather than ingest potentially harmful chemicals, ultimately paying with their health.
"I think it is a stretch to brag about how safe our food is when we have public health experts saying our cancer epidemic is largely related to our diets," Cummins said.
Some politicians think the U.S. food inspection system needs improvements.
On March 13, Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, introduced the Fresh Produce Safety Act, a bill aimed at boosting safety procedures and standards for fresh produce sold in the United States.
"Recent ongoing recalls of fresh produce raise questions about the safety of our food supply and the oversight capacity of the Food and Drug Administration," Braley said. "The FDA needs to be given the authority and resources to do their job and ensure that our food supply is safe."
Braley's bill is the House companion to a Senate bill of the same name introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, last September.
The bill gives the FDA authority to make its voluntary guidelines mandatory and requires stepped-up inspections of operations that grow and process fresh produce.
Handle with care
Once consumers have made their selections and purchased their food, the safety of those products is in their hands. Properly storing and preparing food is a critical part of keeping it safe.
Link said it is important for consumers to keep in mind that most food products were exposed to the elements at one time. That could mean that a bird's droppings landed on a tomato or that bugs crawled on a head of lettuce.
"I think the consumer has some founded worry on the ready-to-eat produce." the city's environmental sanitarian said. "It's probably best to err on the safe side."
One of the critical factors in controlling bacteria in food is controlling temperature. Pathogenic microorganisms grow very slowly at temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, multiply rapidly between 40 degrees and 140 degrees Fahrenheit and are destroyed at temperatures above 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
But even after food has been thoroughly cooked, there remains a risk. Link said a leading cause of food poisoning is failure to cool food enough before sealing and storing the leftovers.
Bacillus cereus, found in dust, soil and spices, can survive normal cooking as a heat-resistant spore and then produce a large number of cells if the storage temperature is incorrect. Food poisoning can result from toxins elaborated by germinating organisms, which most commonly follows inadequate refrigeration and subsequent reheating of foods that have already been cooked, according to the CDC.
Kohl said her advice is to learn about safe food-handling practices and read up on recent food illnesses and recalls.
About a year after her battle with E. coli, she reunited with her love of lettuce and some other leafy greens.
"But I still haven't had the courage to eat a spinach salad since then," she said.
