VIA Great Lakes Echo: according to a new study Americans spend $152 billion on foodborne illnesses each year,
That's more than what the federal government paid to bail American International Group out of debt. It's more than what the U.S. Senate recently approved to bring tax credits to businesses and individuals.
And it is the price tag for medical and "pain and suffering costs" created by food that makes you sick, according to the Produce Safety Project, a food safety organization and affiliate of the Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University.
The United States Agriculture Department previously set estimates between $6.9 billion and $35 billion. But that didn't include costs such as loss of wages, productivity and quality of life, according to Robert Scharff, former Food and Drug Administration economist and the report's author.
"This estimate had not been done in a complete way before," he said. "You must look past just medical costs."
There are approximately 76 million cases of foodborne illnesses a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Three hundred thousand of those are hospitalizations and 5,000 are deaths.
"People often don't think of foodborne illnesses as a big problem," Scharff said. "We have these outbreaks every once in a while, but many of the illnesses that occur, don't get picked up by the media, even when people die from them."
The average individual spends $1,085 on an illness, according to the study.
The price across the country
Cost and number of cases vary between states. Great Lake states Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan were also ranked in the top 10 for total cost and number of cases.
"To some extent, there is a regional aspect to the prevalence of pathogens in the environment and the choice of foods people eat," Scharff said. "There are also differences in respect to medical costs, and labor costs are going to play a part as well."
Michigan and Indiana fell in the $1,100 to $1,200 bracket for total cost per individual case, while Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio fell into the $1,200 to $1,300 bracket. Individual cases in New York and Pennsylvania cost more than $1,300 in total.
"One highlight of this report is how big the produce problem is, compared to the overall problem," Scharff said. "I think it is bigger than a lot of people in the past, would have thought."
More than 19 million foodborne illnesses a year are attributed to produce, according to the study.
Verifying safety
The Food and Drug Administration is establishing food safety standards for the growing, harvesting and packaging of produce, according to The Produce Safety Project. No safety standards exist.
Through the bill H.R. 2749 Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, regulatory powers to the Food and Drug Administration over food safety would increase. The legislation calls for an increase in FDA inspections of food processing plants, expanding the administration's authority for mandatory recall of products, and creating produce safety standards.
The bill has been passed in the House and is waiting for approval from the Senate.
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