If diarrhea lettuce sounds terrible, experts are warning that worse is on its way if the United States doesn't get its food safety regulations in order.
Food safety leaders in the U.S. are concerned that federal cuts have made it harder to detect and stop the spread of foodborne illnesses, potentially leading to more severe outbreaks.
This is how CBS News describes the problem: "Food safety in the U.S. is monitored by a piecemeal system of state and federal agencies. That network is in charge of detecting, investigating, and stopping outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. Key to the system is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's FoodNet program, created after four children died from E. coli in hamburgers in the early 1990s. States participating in the program, officially called the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet), contact labs to get case data that can signal when a problem is emerging."
But in President Donald Trump's second term, as he strove to shrink government by firing workers and dismantling programs, FoodNet has also been curtailed.
States participating in the program no longer have to report cases of certain deadly bacteria like listeria, raising fears that outbreaks will be harder to identify and stop. Specifically, Listeria, a deadly bacteria, is no longer mandatory to report under the FoodNet surveillance system, despite its high hospitalization and fatality rates.
Campylobacter, another harmful bacteria, is also no longer required to be reported by states participating in FoodNet, raising concerns about the identification and prevention of outbreaks.
And if it's not reported to a central database, tracking its source becomes nearly impossible. Hence is the case with the so-called diarrhea lettuce outbreak, which is still largely a mystery weeks after it began sickening people across the U.S. While the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified one product (Taylor Farms lettuce) linked to the diarrhea-causing outbreak, other potential sources of contamination remain.
State health departments, already strained by federal funding cuts and staffing shortages, say they're struggling to handle outbreaks like cyclosporiasis, diverting resources from other essential public health programs.
“The recent actions taken by the administration have significantly weakened federal and state defenses and undermined nationwide coordination against foodborne illnesses, particularly when there is no longer a central location for reporting and comparing data across state lines,” Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar wrote in a letter to the administration.
The FDA has also struggled to meet mandated inspection targets, with staffing cuts further complicating efforts to ensure food safety.
CNBC added, "“Two months and thousands of cases of cyclosporiasis later, it looks like the nation’s already fragile system is faltering.”
Meanwhile, Bill Marler, a Seattle-area food safety lawyer and advocate filed lawsuits against Taco Bell on behalf of people who allege they were sickened by cyclospora after eating there. And he's among those saying worse outbreaks are coming if nothing changes.
"You're basically allowing for outbreaks to continue without being figured out. Invariably more people will get sick," he said to CBS News.
