Foodborne illness affects millions annually

Food recalls are on the rise and food safety systems are broken with 48 million Americans getting sick every year at the price tag of more than $77 billion in aggregated economic costs, according to a new report by US PIRG. "Every year we see hundreds of food products recalled because they have caused sickness and in some cases death," said Nasima Hossain, public health advocate for US PIRG. "2012 had already seen nearly twice as many illnesses due to recalls as 2011, with high-profile recalls of cantaloupes and hundreds of thousands of jars of peanut butter. More needs to be done to identify the contaminants that are making us sick and to protect Americans from the risk of unsafe food."  Read More