WASHINGTON (Sept. 13, 2023)— The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people annually in the United States get sick from eating contaminated or spoiled food, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. September is recognized as National Food Safety Education Month to emphasize the importance of food safety, particularly for groups at high-risk of getting sick due to food poisoning. While even healthy adults are at risk, children five years old or younger, pregnant persons, and adults above age 65, can suffer greater health consequences from food poisoning, including death.
The George Washington University has experts available to discuss the ways to treat and prevent food-borne illnesses, both in the home and through additional regulation.
Barbara Kowalcyk is the director of the new Center for Food Safety & Nutrition Security at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. For 20 years she has been a nationally recognized expert in food safety with training in epidemiology, public health informatics, risk science, regulatory decision-making, and public policy. She co-authored a report by the National Academy of Sciences that became the blueprint for the 2011 Food Safety Modernization Act and currently serves as Chair of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Science Board.
You can watch a video of Barbara Kowalcyk discussing the mission of the Center for Food Safety & Nutrition Security here.
Lance B. Price is professor of environmental and occupational health at GW Milken Institute School of Public Health, and director of the Antibiotic Resistance Action Center at the George Washington University. Earlier this year he published a study in the journal One Health that suggests foodborne E. coli may cause hundreds of thousands of urinary tract infections across the U.S. every year.
You can watch a video of Lance B. Price explaining his e.coli study's findings here.
Barbara Kowalcyk and Lance B. Price are featured in the recent Netflix documentary Poisoned: The Dirty Truth About Your Food.