Sander Kushen
Public Health Advocate, CALPIRG Education Fund
Public Health Advocate, CALPIRG Education Fund
Consumer Watchdog, PIRG
Director of Media Relations, The Public Interest Network
[email protected]
LOS ANGELES — When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recalled 225 varieties of bagged lettuce, spinach and salad products in December because of potentially deadly contamination, it took the FDA a week to post a public notice on its web site. While many stores quickly notify customers of recalls one way or another, they’re not required to, and their practices are neither uniform nor always timely. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimatesthat one in six Americans get sick each year from foodborne diseases. Of those,128,000 wind up in the hospital and 3,000 die.
“We need to do a better job on the easy part – warning consumers what could make them sick,” said Sander Kushen, CALPIRG Education Fund’s consumer advocate. “It’s horrifying that eating contaminated chocolate, fruit or salad could make you deathly ill, but it’s even worse when you realize that some food poisoning easily could be prevented with better public awareness.”
In a new report, Food for thought: Are your groceries safe?, CALPIRG Education Fund surveyed 50 of the largest grocery and convenience store chains nationwide on their notification practices and talked to experts about what needs to change to improve both communication and public safety. 24 of those chains operate in California (see graphic).
Among our findings:
“We’ve been averaging a half-dozen food recalls a week for the last five years. That’s obviously way too many,” Kushen said. ”This country needs to improve its food production process to reduce the need for recalls in the first place. But that’s the difficult part. So, for now, we at least need to make sure grocery shoppers get the timely information they need to stay healthy.”
Our report also includes tips for consumers on steps they can take to keep up with food recalls.
See our tips on how to read “best by/use by” package labels to understand food expiration dates.
See our tips on how to save money at the grocery store, despite rising food prices.