Safer and Healthier Foods

Details

• Journal Article:
  Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Corporate Authors:
  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ; U.S. Dept. of Agriculture. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition ; U.S. Food and Drug Administration Div. of Nutrition Research Coordination ; National Institutes of Health (U.S.) ; National Center for Health Statistics (U.S.) ; National Center for Environmental Health (U.S.) ; National Center for Infectious Diseases (U.S.) ; National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (U.S.)
• Description:
  During the early 20th century, contaminated food, milk, and water caused many foodborne infections, including typhoid fever, Tuberculosis, botulism, and scarlet fever. In 1906, Upton Sinclair described in his novel The Jungle the unwholesome working environment in the Chicago meat-packing industry and the unsanitary conditions under which food was produced. Public awareness dramatically increased and led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act. Once the sources and characteristics of foodborne Diseases were identified--long before vaccines or antibiotics--they could be controlled by handwashing, sanitation, refrigeration, pasteurization, and pesticide application. Healthier animal care, feeding, and processing also improved food Suppl.y safety. In 1900, the incidence of typhoid fever was approximately 100 per 100,000 population; by 1920, it had decreased to 33.8, and by 1950, to 1.7 (Figure 1). During the 1940s, studies of autopsied muscle samples showed that 16% of persons in the U.S. had trichinellosis; 300-400 cases were diagnosed every year, and 10-20 deaths occurred. Since then, the rate of infection has declined markedly; from 1991 through 1996, three deaths and an average of 38 cases per year were reported.
• Subjects:
  CDC--History Foodborne Diseases/Epidemiology Foodborne Diseases/History Foodborne Diseases/Prevention & Control Food Contamination/Prevention & Control Food Industry/History Food Industry/Standards History, 20th Century History, 21st Century Safety
• Source:
  MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 1999 Oct 15;48(40):905-13.
• Series:
  Weekly Report: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• ISSN:
  0149-2195 (print) ; 1545-861X (digital)
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Genre:
  Historical Article
• Place as Subject:
  U.S.
• Pages in Document:
  9 pdf Pages
• Volume:
  48
• Issue:
  40
• Collection(s):
  National Center for Health Statistics Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:49b4ebfa6abc941f3be9b08fbd2871ae013e9c0e3593f1677c5292a7c3c7a4787c20747ad45b52dfcd0e9efc7b9f20932143f825d9e13c57d01bc933275f13cd
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/107661/cdc_107661_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 213.36 KB ]