When food is what makes you sick

This year one in six Americans will get sick from eating contaminated food, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

"The most troublesome combination is campylobacter-laden poultry, which sickens more than 600,000 people annually, resulting in nearly 7,000 hospitalizations. Next on the list, which was based on a decade’s worth of data about disease outbreaks, deaths and costs and a peer-reviewed survey of experts, were pork contaminated with toxoplasma and deli meats tainted with listeria. 

"The most problematic pathogen was salmonella, which appeared four times — in combination with poultry, complex foods (i.e., non-meat dishes composed of multiple ingredients), produce and eggs — and caused just over 250 deaths and nearly 16,000 hospitalizations."

“'At the end of the day, you can make sure you cook everything thoroughly and be ultra-careful about cross-contamination, but this issue won’t go away just by keeping your kitchen clean, or being vegetarian, or even purchasing local meat or vegetables and buying organics,' says Jessica Liebler, a research scientist at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services who specializes in infectious diseases in food systems.  'This is a problem for everyone who eats.'”