School-related food poisonings rising 10 percent annually. (EH Update).

According to a study conducted by the congressional General Accounting Office (GAO), food poisonings in the nation's schools are increasing by about 10 percent a year. The study concludes that the federal government should disclose its inspection records for food plants to the state and local agencies that buy food for schools.

Among outbreaks with a known cause, most were linked to Salmonella bacteria and Norwalk-like viruses. Outbreaks have been traced to a variety of products, from strawberries to hamburgers. Last year, burritos produced in Chicago are believed to have sickened 1,200 children nationwide. In 1997, more than 300 children in five states became ill after eating strawberries harvested in Mexico and processed in California. In 1999, the latest year for which data are available, 50 school-related outbreaks were reported nationwide, with 2,900 illnesses. Officials don't know how many outbreaks were caused by lunches served in cafeterias as opposed to food children brought from home, but it is believed that school-provided meals were the culprit in a majority of cases.

The government has put price above safety in purchasing foods, and that has "resulted in school lunches becoming a dumping ground for ground beef and other agricultural products of questionable safety," Cheryl Roberts of Comer, Georgia, said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing. In 1998, her son, then 11, became seriously ill after eating an undercooked burger contaminated with E. coli O157:H7.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) heavily subsidizes school lunches and buys some of the food, while state and local agencies purchase the rest. USDA "provides little guidance" to those agencies to ensure that the food they are buying is safe, the GAO study says.

GAO officials also fault the government's food regulatory system. USDA regulates meat, while the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has responsibility for most other foods. Neither agency has authority to require that companies recall tainted products. Creating a single agency to regulate food "would go a long way" toward improving food safety the study says.

Nationwide, food poisonings have been on the decline. Preliminary data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier in April showed substantial drops in the rates of illness from six of seven major types of food-borne bacteria over the period 1996-2001. The rate of E. coli illnesses fell 21 percent, the rate of Salmonella illnesses fell 15 percent, and the rate of Listeria illnesses fell 35 percent.

(Adapted, with permission, from the Associated Press, April 30, 2002.)