Unsafe foods cause an estimated 76 million illnesses and 5,000 deaths each year in the United States. Although people from all walks of life can develop foodborne illness, those who are most at risk include the elderly, young children, pregnant women and their fetuses, and the immuno-compromised. While such illnesses largely occur as isolated cases, outbreaks of food poisoning are clusters of illness that result from ingestion of a common contaminated food. A single outbreak can affect hundreds, or even thousands, of people.

05-15-2007CSPI Testimony Addressing Modern Hazards in the Food Supply
Caroline Smith DeWaal, CSPI's Director of Food Safety, testified before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture.

05-8-2007CSPI Testimony on the Safety of Imported Foods and Ingredients
Caroline Smith DeWaal provided testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture in opposition to a proposal to move food safety import monitoring from FDA to USDA.

04-13-2007 CSPI's Presentation at FDA's Hearing on the "Safety of Fresh Produce"

03-12-2007 CSPI Testimony to Improve Produce Safety
Caroline Smith DeWaal, CSPI's Director of Food Safety, testified before a U.S. Senate Subcommittee in Madison, Wisconsin. "Seventy-six million Americans get sick and 5,000 die from foodborne hazards each year," Smith DeWall explained, "The Safe Food Act works to prevent foodborne illness and bioterrorism without grand schemes or an inflated budget."

12-18-2006 Produce Outbreaks 1990-2004
To clarify some recent discrepancies in media reports, please see CSPI's quick reference guide on the number of produce-related outbreaks and the number of illnesses caused in each outbreak between 1990 and 2004.

12-11-2006 Key Charts from Outbreak Alert
Produce outbreaks with an identified hazard have in recent years surpassed the number of outbreaks in poultry, beef, pork, and eggs. Although there are generally more outbreaks reported in seafood, the number of cases of illness in produce outbreaks far exceeds those made ill in seafood outbreaks. These key charts illustrate these trends.

12-08-2006 Outbreak Alert CSPI's ongoing analysis of outbreaks of foodborne illness
CSPI tracked a total of 5,000 foodborne illness outbreaks, involving 152,097 individual cases that occurred between 1990 and 2004. The food categories most commonly linked to foodborne illness outbreaks were:

• - Seafood/seafood dishes: 984 outbreaks (9,969 cases of illness)
• - Produce/produce dishes: 639 outbreaks (31,496 cases of illness)
• - Poultry/poultry dishes: 541 outbreaks (16,280 cases of illness)
• - Beef/beef dishes: 467 outbreaks (13,220 cases of illness)
• - Eggs/egg dishes: 341 outbreaks (11,027 cases of illness)

Intro to report
Outbreak Alert Report (Full)

12-08-2006 Fear of Fresh
The cover story in CSPI's Nutrition Action Healthletter identifies the sources of food borne illness, tells consumers how to store leftovers safely, and has a Q&A with Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

11-15-2006 CSPI Urges FDA to Regulate Food Safety on Farms
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) formally called on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue regulations to ensure the safety of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Press Release
Petition
Safe Food Coalition Letter

10-25-06 California Urged to Monitor Farms for Food Safety
The state of California should move quickly to adopt regulations governing the production of fruit and vegetables in California since no federal agency has yet adopted standards, according to the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Press Release
Petition
Letter to HHS Secretary Leavitt
Testimony to California Legislature

08-01-06 Six Arguments for a Greener Diet
By all means, don't stop including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet. Avoiding foodborne illness is the second of CSPI executive director Michael Jacobson's six compelling arguments. The first is reducing your risk of chronic disease by eating a more plant-based diet, and less fatty animal products. Much of the contamination involving fresh fruits and vegetables can be traced back to problems with animal agriculture.

Press Release
Tour the Food Supply
Calculate the Effect of Your Diet on:
Your Health and the Environment
Buy the Book

11-21-2005 Salmonella Outbreaks Linked to Produce on the Rise
Most people properly associate Salmonella with raw poultry. But according to an analysis of food-poisoning outbreaks by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, fresh produce is catching up with chicken as a major culprit of Salmonella infections.

Press Release

04-06-2005 Single Food Safety Agency Needed, Says CSPI
Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representative Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today introduced the Safe Food Act of 2005, a bill that would help protect consumers from food-borne illness by consolidating the current fragmented and overlapping food-safety system, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The bill would establish a comprehensive program to protect public health while also bolstering consumer confidence in the safety of the food supply.

Press Release