Food is an essential part of our daily lives. We are reliant on food to give us the vital nutrients that our cells need to survive. Everyday our bodies utilize energy, and that energy is replenished by us eating food. It provides us with the energy to wake up every morning, go to work, and come home and tend to our families. Access to safe and nutritious food plays a major role in sustaining life and maintaining good health. Now if we are so reliant on safe food and the energy it gives us, then why is the problem of unsafe food and the unsafe facilities it is coming from so large? “Unsafe food containing harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites, or chemical substances causes more than 200 diseases-ranging from diarrhea to cancers.” (WHO) Although …show more content…
If the FDA and other public health organizations promise to help food establishments produce cleaner, safer food, then why are they not increasing the amount of inspections needed to combat the increasing food borne illness outbreak? It all boils down to cost. An increase in food factory inspections would make eating healthy, safe food costly and expensive. As it is now without this increase in food facility inspections, “unhealthy food is about $1.50 cheaper per day, or about $550 per year, than healthy food.” (huffingtonpost) Imagine how much more the cost of healthy, safe food that has been inspected would be over unhealthy food that does not require strict inspections of the facilities it comes from. Therefore, the FDA must increase inspection of mass produced meats and vegetables as well as vouch for increased funding towards this. This increased amount of funds that would go towards FDA food and facility inspections would cut the issue of cost out of the equation. As of last year, “The FY 2017 Budget includes $5.1 billion in total resources for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an increase of $358 million, or 8 percent above FY 2016. (hhs.gov) While this appears like a lot of money is going towards food inspections, only a portion of the FDA’s budget resources are going towards this. If all $5.1 billion dollars of the FDA’s budget went towards food inspections, the cost associated with them would not be as high as it is now. Therefore, if the FDA worked with the United States government to initiate a revenue bill that raised at least five billion dollars towards improving the safety of food and increasing facility inspections, it would eliminate the costs associated with producing safe, healthy food and result in less food borne
Furthermore, food safety is a major issue in the United States. Foodborne illness has caused an estimated 1 and 6 Americans to be sickened, 128,000 hospitalizations, and cause 3,000 deaths each year (http://www.sustainabletable.org/). These numbers may seem shocking, but they are all too real. All of the high levels
In our fast pace society, we base everything on time and money. This need to save money and time has transformed the way we see food and purchase food. Food is an essential part of all cultures. It plays a role in every person’s life. The population has the power to choose what we eat and how the food industry is shaped. There are many important questions that we need to ask ourselves in order to keep the food industry in check. These questions are: How do we know our food is safe? What should we eat? How should food be distributed? What is good food? These are simple yet difficult questions.
Genetically modified food is a significant issue that America is currently dealing with; it has affected millions around the world. Genetically modified food is crops, plants, and animals whose DNA has been altered for agricultural and nutritional reasons. In the Alltime Conspiracies video, “How Dangerous Are GMO Food” he argues that GMOs can have budding effect on humans, and the more we consume the more damage that is being done to our DNA cells. The author Alltime Conspiracy begins building his credibility with personal facts plus highly regarded sources, citing credible facts and statistics,
To give background on the FDA and USDA for better understanding the USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, while the FDA is responsible for dairy, seafood, and vegetables. The USDA was founded in 1862 to encourage food creation in the United States (Sherrow 15). Dr. Peter Collier was the first person to suggest rules and laws for the safety of our food (Sherrow 15). Congress passed the Meat Inspection Act in 1890. The Act made the USDA inspectors inspect all pig products (Sherrow 15). In 1906 the Comprehensive Meat Inspection Act was passed. The act assigned inspectors from the UDSA to the United States’ 163 slaughter houses. In the slaughter houses the meat needed to be inspected before and after slaughter (Sherrow 15-16). The FDA is also responsible for protecting food from terrorists and anyone who wants to try to harm the public (Wilson). The FDA oversees 167,000 farms in the United States and 421,000 worldwide farms. The FDA only has 1,100 inspectors to inspect those farms (Wilson). The number of inspections done by the FDA went from 4,573 in 2005 to 3,400 in 2006 (Sherrow 34). According to the Center of Science in the Public Interest the FDA has no authority for prev...
On January 4, 2011 President Obama signed into law The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This law has shed new light on the safety and security of our food supply. The last update to the food safety laws in the United States was in 1938. The food safety modernization act pays special attention at trying to modernize the food safety policies in the United States in hopes to prevent problems and concerns before they happen. As we all know, most of our food comes from overseas or sometimes from your neighboring state. The food products travel by car, truck, airplane, boat, or even train. We are all very happy to be receiving our bananas from Costa Rica and all of our other fresh fruits and vegetables that are imported into the United States, but we never stop to think about what pathogens are contaminating our produce and other foods on the way over and if they are safe for us to eat. In an article by Neal Fortin, he states that the law also gives the FDA new standards to hold imported foods to the domestic food standards and it also encourages the FDA to establish and develo...
Almost every angle of the food industry can be considered dangerous. It is dangerous to make the food, as a meatpacking job is one that is viewed as having abnormally high risks; however when the food is handed over a counter on a tray or prepared in a family of four’s kitchen, it poses a huge risk to humankind. Foodborne illnesses are all too common and almost everybody has the possiblity of contracting a foodborne illness. These are life threatening diseases that need to be monitored and regulated; therefore the enforcement of government regulations in the fast food industry could potentially save many lives that are lost annually due to the numerous factors that need regulation.
American society has grown so accustomed to receiving their food right away and in large quantities. Only in the past few decades has factory farming come into existence that has made consuming food a non guilt-free action. What originally was a hamburger with slaughtered cow meat is now slaughtered cow meat that’s filled with harmful chemicals. Not only that, the corn that that cow was fed with is also filled with chemicals to make them grow at a faster rate to get that hamburger on a dinner plate as quickly as possible. Bryan Walsh, a staff writer for Time Magazine specializing in environmental issues discusses in his article “America’s Food Crisis” how our food is not only bad for us but dangerous as well. The word dangerous could apply to many different things though. Our food is dangerous to the consumer, the workers and farmers, the animals and the environment. Walsh gives examples of each of these in his article that leads back to the main point of how dangerous the food we are consuming every day really is. He goes into detail on each of them but focuses his information on the consumer.
...ly look at the false claims made by food industries expand on their already set regulations, making it harder for companies to get around them. However, if the FDA believes that their regulations are as specific as they can get, then there should be at least somebody to educate consumers about food labels and add more detail to nutritional value charts. Because without changing the way how information is provided and educating people, they will not be able to change their diets to improve nations overall health.
What is Foodborne Illness? According to a medical dictionary, foodborne illness is an acute gastrointestinal infection caused by consuming food contaminated with pathogenic, bacteria, toxins, viruses, prions or parasites. Such contamination was caused by improper food handling, preparation or storage of food. Contacts between food and pests, especially flies, cockroaches and rodents are a further cause of contamination of food. Foodborne illness can also be caused by adding pesticides or medicine to food or consuming or by accidentally consuming naturally poisonous substances. That is why foodborne illness can also be called food poisoning.
First off, The government of the United States of America is ultimately responsible for keeping our foods safe. Many of the Presidents of the major food companies also obtain government jobs. When a problem occurs with food and a food has to be recalled a change has to be made. Someone comes up with a law to make sure that the problem does not occur again. The government evaluates the law and either passes or denies it. The type of foods that we buy from the grocery store were pre evaluated by the government. I think the reason why most foods are unsafe and are still being obtained by local residents is because the major food companies work and make deals with government so
The third weakness is the fact that food tests, inspections, and the detection of contaminants are taken seriously only after an outbreak of some food-borne diseases, food poisoning, or deaths. The increase in the number of food establishments or outlets such as cold stores, hypermarkets, and supermarkets reported by the Public Health Director has also made inspection and control mo...
Food matters. Nevertheless, food safety in China is worse than what you thought; you can never imagine how toxic it is. Although there are variety choices of restaurant for us to eat nowadays, many people still choose to eat at home. Not only to save money, but also be sensible for their own health. Think about our situation now, we can constantly buy meats that we think is fresh and yummy, but who knows if it’s healthy and safe? Is it truly what you want? What materials will the restaurant serves you? Food safety affects people a lot. Nowadays, especially in China, many citizens are already despair in this affair. Food safety is one of the most principal issues to the entire world; as one of the most important feature in everybody’s life,
Food safety is an increasingly important public health issue. Governments all over the world are intensifying their efforts to improve food safety. Food borne illnesses are diseases, usually either infectious or toxic in nature, caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food. “In industrialized countries, the percentage of people suffering from food borne diseases each year has been reported to be up to 30%. In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.” (Geneva 2)
Ever since human beings have walked this earth they have been eating food and preparing meals. There really is no exact date as to when man first began to cook their meals but whenever that revelation occurred it would change the way humans look at food forever. Now let us fast forward a few hundred thousand years to the 21st century, these days food safety has become a huge priority at the national level. Many programs and departments have been created to bring the public’s attention to this issue. The most notable agency in regards to food safety is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is responsible for protecting the overall public health of American citizens by regulating foods, among others. More specifically the FDA oversees almost everything we put into our bodies, legally that is. The FDA is responsible for recalling contaminated food, regulating dietary labels, etc . So how does this agency pertain to food safety in the home? The answer is quite simple; virtually everything that the average American will eat for dinner has most likely been regulated by this agency. They are responsible for protecting what we put into our bodies, whether we want to admit it or not, we are trus...
Contamination of food is the key factor that is responsible for food poisoning. These can happen anywhere be it restaurants, picnics and even at home when foods are prepared in unhygienic places and in an unhygienic manner. The causes of food poisoning can be broadly divided into two categories: