eggs and salmonella

Keep eggs properly refrigerated; look for eggs from pasture-raised hens fed organic feed.

A close look reveals that the FDA has known about the salmonella-egg threat for some time.

RODALE NEWS, WASHINGTON, DC—Consider this as you check your egg cartons to see if they're included in the attention-getting egg recall: Our current salmonella-egg crisis was hatched quite some time ago, with origins going back almost a quarter of a century.

THE DETAILS: Here's a recap of the whole sordid shell game.

1986: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) discovers that Salmonella enterididis can be found inside an uncracked, Grade A egg. It’s news to them. (And not good news.)

1989: In response, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA), each of which has jurisdiction over different parts of egg production, develop competing control programs to lower the risk of infected eggs.

1991: Congress passes a law requiring refrigeration of eggs from the time they leave the farm until the consumer buys them. It is never enforced.

1992: USDA begins a voluntary pilot program to regulate eggs, and perhaps reduce the incidence of salmonellosis, a salmonella-induced gastrointestinal illness that in healthy individuals can cause painful gastrointestinal symptoms, but in the very young, the very old, and the immune-compromised, can cause death.

1995: Congress cuts the funding for the pilot program, as well as a traceback program, because the industry asks it to.

The next several years are spent doing risk assessments.

1999: President Clinton announces, in one of his Saturday-morning radio addresses, that FDA must take the lead on an egg-safety regulation. But USDA and FDA continue to fight over jurisdiction.

2004: The FDA proposes a set of regulations designed to reduce the incidence of salmonellosis.

2010: Almost a quarter-century after the discovery of Salmonella inside eggs, the regulation to reduce the incidence of the bacterium in eggs takes affect on July 9, several months too late to stop the most recent, and some say, the worst, outbreak of salmonellosis in 20 years. Some critics say the new regulation does not go far enough because it does not require vaccinating chickens against Salmonella. So far, almost half a billion eggs have been recalled, and hundreds and hundreds of people have been sickened. And those are only the reported cases; the CDC estimates that for every case reported, 30 to 38 cases go unreported.

WHAT IT MEANS: No one can ever accuse the FDA of being trigger-happy.

Politicians who tell you that America has the safest food supply in the world are unaware of, or choose to ignore, the number of recalls the government makes every year because the food-safety system in this country is, in many ways, dysfunctional.

Part of the problem is that some foods, like eggs, have too many agencies responsible for their safety. But much of the problem is a food industry that prefers voluntary compliance with regulations. With its army of lobbyists and its donations to political campaigns, the food industry often calls the shots. In fact, at this moment, the U.S. Senate is holding up a bill that would go a long way towards reducing future recalls. The House passed such legislation in 2009. The Senate still has not acted. Perhaps this recent outbreak will light a fire under the senators.