Many States Get Poor Grades for Food Poisoning Control, Says Report

Better tracking and communication is needed to find causes of food borne illnesses -- and hopefully keep consumers from getting sick from food poisoning, said the nonprofit group Center for Science in the Public Interest in a report released today.

CSPI studied 10 years of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as its own Outbreak Alert! database and graded each state on their tracking of food borne illnesses -- with 29 states and the District of Columbia earning a "D" or "F."

States that got higher grades took more aggressive approaches to investigating food-borne illnesses and reporting them to the CDC, helping to "nail down the foods that are responsible for making people sick," said CSPI food safety director Caroline Smith DeWaal in a statement sent to Consumer Ally. "But when states aren't detecting outbreaks, interviewing victims, identifying suspect food sources, or connecting with federal officials, outbreaks can grow larger and more frequent, putting more people at risk," she said.