Andrew Seal

What does cat food, peanuts, peanut butter, eggs, lettuce, alfalfa sprouts, pistachios, tomatoes, dried chili peppers, ground beef, and hydrolyzed vegetable protein all have in common?

While “food” is a good guess, and correct at that, it is not the right answer. “Salmonella” is.

All the above products have, at some point in the past two years, been recalled because of Salmonella contamination.

Salmonella is a pretty nasty little disease. Its home base is feces, which while being gross on its own, becomes even worse when you wonder how the peanut butter sandwich you just ate became contaminated.

Once inside the human body, Salmonella sets up shop in the intestines and rolls out the welcome mat, in this case, salmonellosis. Salmonellosis-sufferers can expect diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and abdominal cramps.

This goes on for about a week, maybe more, maybe less, and usually does not result in anything worse than maybe a trip to the hospital for an IV drip.

In more severe cases though, Salmonella decides to go on a little world tour of the body, infecting other body parts as it goes, eventually making its way into the blood stream.

This can result in death unless antibiotics are quickly taken. Unfortunately, this infection hits infants and the elderly the hardest.

Of all the things people have to worry about these days, food should not be one of them. A simple solution seems to be not buying from the companies that have recalled food.

The problem is though that the world of U.S. food production is so integrated and amalgamated that it becomes hard to avoid buying from certain companies. A surefire way to avoid food companies is to buy from a local farmer’s market, but not everyone has that option.

So what is the problem with U.S. food production? In a word: regulation.

Bonnie Azab Powell, co-founder of the food ethics blog “The Ethicurean,” wrote an excellent piece on U.S. food regulation compared to its European counterpart.

In the United States, there are no mandatory food recalls. Sadly, the Food and Drug Administration is powerless to force companies to do anything.

“We let the industry conduct its own testing for pathogens,” Powell wrote. “And when it is nice enough to tell the FDA it’s found some, we let the company recall months-old tainted products on its own schedule”.

The FDA does not require American companies to clearly list which of their foods might be genetically modified either. The European Food Safety Authority, on the other hand, requires any genetically modified food ingredients to be clearly identified as such.

“Governments in Europe have much more power to enforce food safety testing and to shut down infected farms,” according to Powell. Why doesn’t the FDA have this power? Giving the governmental body some teeth would straighten those companies right out.

If you need proof of that, take a look at Great Britain: due to the EFSA’s oversight and guidance, “Salmonella infections in England have dropped a stunning 96 percent since 1997,” Powell wrote.

That’s an incredible number, considering that over here in the States, every month seems to feature a new Salmonella-tainted food.

It is also fairly damning evidence. Perhaps it is time for the United States to reevaluate how we look at our food. The FDA needs more power to take action against companies that harm the health and lives of their customers.

More oversight may not make for good capitalism, but companies playing fast and loose with the lives of consumers is not either.