This book provides an overview of the US food safety system. It focuses on microbial contamination of food during production. Detailed case studies illustrate how deadly foodborne illness outbreaks caused by infected milk, poison hamburgers, and tainted spinach have spurred scientific and technological advances in food safety. These case studies reveal that efforts to improve food safety through government regulation, industry supply chain management, civil litigation, and consumer advocacy are highly interdependent. Yet, despite these concerted efforts, foodborne illness remains a pervasive a ... More

This book provides an overview of the US food safety system. It focuses on microbial contamination of food during production. Detailed case studies illustrate how deadly foodborne illness outbreaks caused by infected milk, poison hamburgers, and tainted spinach have spurred scientific and technological advances in food safety. These case studies reveal that efforts to improve food safety through government regulation, industry supply chain management, civil litigation, and consumer advocacy are highly interdependent. Yet, despite these concerted efforts, foodborne illness remains a pervasive and pressing public health problem. Inadequate agency budgets restrict the reach of government regulation; pressure from consumers to keep prices down constrains industry investments in safety; and the limits of scientific knowledge leave experts unable to assess the effectiveness of policies. To address these problems, the book proposes two reforms. First, it recommends focusing government investment in food safety on improving the infrastructure of outbreak investigation rather than hiring and training more agency inspectors. Dedicating more public resources to outbreak investigations would reduce uncertainty about the root causes of foodborne illness. Second, the book argues for greater reliance on industry-funded audits carried out by government inspectors on a fee-for-service basis and by private auditors subject to civil liability for professional negligence. These auditing arrangements would foster more comprehensive and reliable oversight to ensure rigorous implementation of food safety efforts. In addition, the book applauds the application of new technologies to uncover the root causes of foodborne illness and reduce the risk of future outbreaks.