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Links to Food Safety and Recall Information
Bacteria such as E. coli O157:H7, Listeria, and Vibrio vulnificus can be deadly to those who are vulnerable. Past outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 have been associated with contaminated beef, raw milk, water, apple cider, and lettuce. Outbreaks of listeriosis have been traced to consumption of raw milk, pates, and cold cuts.
Vibrio vulnificus occurs naturally in marine waters and is can be found in Gulf of Mexico oysters. Forty percent of Vibrio vulnificus infections from raw oyster consumption are fatal, and eating raw oysters with hot sauce or while drinking alcohol does not kill the bacteria. More information on food and waterborne diseases and the organisms and toxins that cause them can be found within the Internet sites suggested below.
Food Product Safety
Food product recalls are issued when conditions are discovered that make food products potentially unsafe for consumption. Internet links for information on food product recalls are also found below.
Food and Waterborne Illness Surveillance
Changing patterns of individual and global economic behavior have complicated the public health control of food and waterborne diseases in recent years and have accentuated the need for an improved public health infrastructure to detect illness. Florida has a unique structure in place for food and waterborne disease surveillance and investigation with nine regional food and waterborne illness epidemiologists to assist 67 county health departments in the investigation of these outbreaks. Obviously a good surveillance system is necessary to ensure a good reporting system and a major concern was to develop a system that would better capture the number of outbreaks that are occurring.
This program is designed to address tasks at the county, regional, and state levels. The counties themselves maintain food and waterborne illness complaint logs and perform outbreak investigations with an epidemiological team composed of an environmental health professional, a nurse and an epidemiologist. In addition to the knowledge and experience the regional epidemiologists bring to the program, they provide technical assistance in outbreak investigations and report writing along with assistance in questionnaire development and statistical analysis. Regional epidemiologists also play a role in helping to train county health department staff in a variety of aspects of outbreak investigations. The statewide food and waterborne disease coordinator synthesizes annual and quarterly statewide data and provide information to other state and federal agencies during outbreak investigations.
Food and Waterborne Illnesses Investigations
The Florida Department of Health, together with its team of regional food/waterborne illness epidemiologists and county health departments is responsible for investigating illness outbreaks associated with food and water consumption and recreational water use. Annual investigation reports are available in .pdf format for the years:
By clicking on the above year of interest. Also available: Secretary's Quarterly Performance Measures Annual Report - March 13th, 2003 (88K pdf)
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