(WL) Food Related Illnesses Lesson

Food Related Illnesses

People often say that healthier foods are more expensive, and that such costs strongly limit better diet habits.  Research shows that that healthier diet patterns—for example, diets rich in fruits and vegetables, fish, and nuts—cost significantly more than unhealthy diets (for example, those rich in processed foods, meats, and refined grains). On average, a day's worth of the healthiest diet patterns cost about $1.50 more per day than the least healthy ones.  Unhealthy diets may cost less because food policies have focused on the production of "inexpensive, high volume" commodities.

Financial and Personal Consequences of Food Illnesses

Being in the food service industry comes with a great variety of responsibilities. One of the most important of those is the responsibility to keep the food you serve safe. You simply can't afford not to. A foodborne-illness outbreak can cost an operation thousands of dollars or even result in closure. More important than the monetary costs, though, are the human costs. Victims of foodborne illnesses have been known to experience sickness, lost work, medical costs and long-term disability. 

Each year, millions of Americans will be sickened by one of 15 common pathogens.

A study published by the Journal of Food Protections estimates that the economic loss of foodborne illness in the United States costs billions of dollars annually for:

• inpatient and outpatient medical costs
• loss of income
• productivity losses
• illness-related mortality

The personal effects of food illnesses can be devastating and even deadly. Here are some serious effects associated with several common types of food poisoning:

• Kidney failure
• Chronic arthritis
• Brain and nerve damage
• Death

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