Disease spread through school lunches

[The Straight Story]

Disease spread through school lunches

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Hundreds and possibly thousands of children in the United States become sick from contaminated food served in school cafeterias, USA Today reports.

The newspaper examined cases reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 1998 and 2007. It found 470 outbreaks of food-borne illness during that period, with at least 23,000 children becoming ill.

Foods responsible for illness included chocolate milk, chicken tenders, turkey and pasta.

In more than half the cases, investigators were unable to identify a bacterium or virus responsible for an outbreak. In other cases they have identified the pathogen while being unable to determine which food was contaminated.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/11/18/Disease-spread-through-school-lunches/UPI-97171258526035/

[ixion]

1. I remember getting food poisoning at least once from school cafeteria food

it was much better once I was able to leave campus to get real food. It's a sad statement on the state of our schools. :(

[pipoman]

2. There is inherent danger in eating

The numbers, I would guess, are not unlike (probably lower) than the public in general. Occasional food borne illness is an unfortunate side effect of eating.

[a la izquierda]

3. Not in my mom's school distric...

she runs that place like a five star restaurant (which in another life, she'd actually do). She has 11 schools, she consults my husband and I on vegetarian options; she makes her own pasta sauce from scratch.
I eat there occasionally when I'm home for visits, and that's saying something.

[cali]

6. kudos to your wonderful mom.

In Vermont there's been a huge effort on this front and a big emphasis on schools using local foods.

[a la izquierda]

8. thanks

she thinks no one should eat anything she wouldn't feed her family (i guess it's the italian food snob in her). i just hope she doesn't try to get those kids to eat braciole...that stuff's nasty!
:evilgrin:

[fasttense]

4. It's because school cafeterias have slowly all turned to using big Agra.

Small farmers are purposely forced out of the market and Agribusinesses have taken over.

Agribusinesses ship in foods from China, Mexico, India and other countries that have no safety standards. They buy produce in the US for pennies, so that farmers are forced to rush workers, (Don't wash your hands before picking, you don't have time. Don't use the bathroom piss in the field.) and underpay them.

It use to be that local farmers delivered most of the food to school cafeterias. Now, it's delivered by Sisco and Cargill. They spray poisons on everything, lock the animals in tiny cages and pump them full of hormones and antibiotics.

Is it any wonder kids get sick from this crap.

[pipoman]

5. Food borne illness is probably at it's lowest

rate in the history of eating. Most food preparation facilities and food distributors now follow the temperature guidelines necessary to minimize food borne illness. For centuries these standards were not known.

[cali]

7. Not everywhere.

In my state, there's been a significant move toward local foods in public schools.