Making Our Food Safer
THE SEASON of resolutions is upon us, and with it comes plenty of nutrition advice, some of it smart, and some not so much. But not even the soundest advice will help if the food we believe to be healthy isn’t safe to eat—and unfortunately, we have a significant food safety p roblem in the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that foodborne illnesses cause 1 in 6 Americans to get sick every year, leading to 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. In just the past few months, we’ve seen large recalls of ground turkey, kale, and onions, among other products. Congress released a worrisome report in September on dangerous heavy metals in food for babies and toddlers. And a recent CR report warned that about one-third of the…