Microbial Contamination of Food

Control of severe foodborne diseases, such as botulism and typhoid fever, in the past half century has been so successful on the whole that it has left the impression that technical knowledge in this field is completely adequate. But current sanitation practices of the past decade and a half have failed to reduce a high incidence of foodborne infections. It is now believed that hitherto unsuspected fungi, bacteria, viruses, rickettsiae, and protozoa may be at least partly responsible for a number of these infections. For example, an outbreak of infectious hepatitis was traced to polluted shellfish, first in Sweden, then in the United States.

A survey of 63 frozen food plants conducted in the mid-sixties by the Food and Administration revealed numerous hazardous and unsanitary situations. After examining 3000 food samples, the Food and Drug Administration concluded: "Sanitary and operating practices in the plants were considerably below the levels desired."

Food Additives

Under the present operation of our scientific agriculture and highly technical foodprccessing industry, it would be impossible to keep foreign chemicals (food additives) completely out of our foodstuffs and still feed the American people well. It has been promulgated, for example, that the yield of American farms would drop by 10 to 90% if agricultural chemicals (principally fertilizers) were eliminated. A tolerable percentage of these chemicals remains in the foodstuffs consumed. Among the food additives commonly used in American foodstuffs are nutrient supplements (such as vitamins), sugar substitutes (like saccharin), preservatives (including salt and vinegar), emulsifiers, thickeners, neutralizing agents, leavening agents, color additives ^/e.g. certified coal-tar colors), and livestock-food additives which leave a residue in milk, meat, and eggs. In all questions about the risks of food additives, one must remember that fundamental axiom of pharmacology, The dose makes the poison" ("Dosa venum Tacit").

Finally we must mention the risk of radionuclide contamination of milk and other foods by fallout from nuclear explosions, byproducts of atomic reactors, and residues of radioactive waste. About five-sixths of the strontium 90 that gets into the human body comes through the food chain, especially dairy products (where strontium replaces calcium). A great teal of study remains to be done on radionuclide contamination through the food chain.

PESTICIDES

In the last decade of the nineteenth century the insect transmission of a number of diseases was positively confirmed. It was noted that typhus fever was carried by the body louse, plague by the rat-flea, malaria and yellow fever by mosquitos. Public health campaigns based on available knowledge and materials were instituted to control the harmful insects. A big break-through came during World War II with the introduction of DDT and other synthetic chemicals. These products came to be called insecticides and later pesticides. They "worked" not only on diseases of man but also on diseases or infestations of crops or cattle. The value of these new synthetic chemicals (and there are thousands of formulations of them) to public health and agriculture was the subject of high and continuing praise.