It might seem like there’s news about E. coli or listeria every week. Here’s what the data on food safety actually show.. There has been a barrage of bad news about food lately. Ten people died after eating Boar’s Head deli meat in a listeria outbreak that hospitalized dozens of others. One person has died and more than 100 people have been sickened in an E. coli outbreak linked to onions served on McDonald’s Quarter Pounders. This month, there has been a food recall nearly every day.. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick to lead the federal health department, has repeatedly called the U.S. food system “broken.” And the public seems to agree with that sentiment: A September poll showed that confidence in federal regulators’ ability to ensure that the food supply was safe was at a record low.. But a closer examination of data on foodborne illnesses and food recalls shows a more complicated picture. Experts say that by some measures, the food supply has become safer in recent years: We now have better testing systems that make it possible to detect contaminated food sooner and recall it faster, which means that outbreaks are now often smaller. It’s also easier to detect foodborne illnesses and link them to specific outbreaks. Still, there has been less progress than experts had hoped to see by now.. “I won’t say the food supply is getting less safe, but it’s not getting safer either,” said Donald Schaffner, a professor of food science at Rutgers University. “We’ve sort of stalled out.”. Experts say that the lack of progress is due, at least in part, to a patchwork regulatory system that has struggled to keep pace with an increasingly complex food supply. More products and ingredients are now being imported, and food is more frequently grown, manufactured, packed and distributed by separate companies. A longer and less integrated supply chain means there are many more points at which the food can be contaminated.. Consumer habits have also changed, with more people relying on ready-to-eat foods like deli meats and bagged salads that they don’t wash or cook themselves.. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.. Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.. Thank you for your patience while we verify access.. Already a subscriber? Log in.. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
