Study ranks food pathogens by cost to society

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Source: The Washington Post

Of the food pathogens that cost society the most money — in terms of medical care, lost days of work, long-term chronic health problems or deaths — half are found in poultry, pork, beef and other meat products, according to a study due for release Thursday.

For the first time, researchers used federal data on food-borne illnesses to link the pathogens — bacteria, viruses or parasites — and the foods that most often carry them and then ranked them according to the financial burden they place on society.

“We tend to think of food-borne disease as 24 hours of diarrhea and it’s over,” said J. Glenn Morris, the director of the Emerging Pathogens Institute at the University of Florida and one of the authors of the study. “What this shows is that there are diseases that have significant other manifestations, that result in complications, even death. And as a result, the public health burden is so much greater.”

The food contaminant that causes the most economic damage is campylobacter in poultry, which sickens more than 600,000 people and costs society $1.3 billion a year, the study found. In second place is toxoplasma in pork; that parasite poses a particular danger for pregnant women and costs an estimated $1.2 billion a year.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/study_ranks_food_pathogens_by_cost_to_society/2011/04/27/AFPLWK2E_story.html