Only 48 million get food poisoning annually in the US

Good news (not really). Through an estimate derived through 'substantially improved methods', the number of people who are thought to get sick annually via food poisoning fell from 76 million to 48 million.  That's fantastic. Annual deaths fell from 5000 down to 3000.

The two reports on illness due to major recognized pathogens and unspecified agents along with an editorial by one of my Maryland mentors, Glenn Morris, have been published in expedited form in EID.

I hope the timing of the article doesn't impact the bill modernizing the FDA that recently passed  in the Senate but has yet to make it to President Obama. 48 million and 3000 are too many, especially in 2010.

Ominously, Glenn Morris points out in the editorial that "if one looks simply at rates of overall gastrointestinal illness in the United States, based on FoodNet Population Surveys, one might infer that overall rates of acute gastrointestinal illness have increased during this period, from 0.49 episodes per person per year in 2000–2001, to 0.54 in 2002–2003, and to 0.73 in 2006–2007."  On the plus side. Morris suggests that using FoodNet data "the overall trends show an initial drop in incidence of infection with the major bacterial foodborne pathogens after implementation of the 1995 USDA regulations, followed by a leveling off of incidence in subsequent years."

Well, there is some good news.  We now have more accurate estimates of infections due to foodborne pathogens in the US. When you have better data, you can have a a more modern, risk-based food safety system.  This is why Dan and I argued in our recent JAMA editorial that we need a continued expansion of the existing but somewhat limited hospital-infection and MDRO surveillance system in the US.

see also: William Neuman NY Times article