Political Quotes

“years ago, a friend from Chicago went out and bought hamburger meat at a local grocery store. She took it home, cooked it, and gave it to her five-year-old boy. That poor boy was exposed to E. coli and died a few days later, a gruesome, horrible death. In 1992, four children died and 700 people were sickened by an E. coli outbreak that was traced to hamburgers served at Jack in the Box restaurants. That outbreak proved to be a pivotal moment in the history of the beef industry. The Federal Government revamped the meat inspection program which has led a decline in the number of illnesses from beef since 2000. The E. coli outbreaks from fresh produce that occurred at the end of 2006 may prove to be the critical events for the produce industry as the Jack in the Box outbreak was for the meat industry. Three people died and nearly 200 were sickened in 26 States due to E. coli that was traced back to packaged spinach. The breadth of the problem of foodborne illness is stunning. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that as many as 76 million people suffer from food poisoning each year. Of those individuals, approximately 325,000 will be hospitalized and more than 5,000 will die. Children and the elderly are especially vulnerable to foodborne pathogens.”