The Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has released the second edition of the Bad Bug Book, a guide to current information about the pathogens that cause foodborne illness.
The book gives a biography of each pathogen that is general in nature. In a news release obtained by Food Poisoning Bulletin, the agency said that “the information provided in this handbook is abbreviated and general in nature, and is intended for practical use.”
The document is not written as a clinical or scientific reference book. In this edition, they’ve added a box to each pathogen profile with consumer information. The FDA is hopeful that these boxes will make the document more helpful to consumers, since they “describe plainly what can make you sick and, more important, how to prevent it.”
Food Poisoning Bulletin talked to Dr. Ted Johnson, professor of biology at St. Olaf College and Director of the Health Professions Committee, about the book. He said that it’s good for the FDA to get into consumer education and that consumers should find a lot of information in the document.
But he also said, “There are many foods that are potential sources for foodborne illness that aren’t scrutinized enough by the agency. For instance, we used to say that just peeling fruit would protect you against pathogens. But now, apples can have bacteria inside the flesh.”
Dr. Johnson wishes that consumers were more knowledgeable about food safety in general and cross-contamination in particular. And documents like the Bad Bug Book can help.
