Georgia is Still Behind in Food Safety

Jessica Smagacz

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Today the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) reported that Georgia “has largely failed to reduce the number of illnesses caused by food-borne contamination over the past four years.” This report came from officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Dr. Robert Tauxe, a top food safety official at CDC, said “In Georgia, as in other sites, there has been very little evidence of process in food safety over the past four years.”

Georgia had the second highest rate of salmonella in a ten state study in the year of 2008, also including previous years.

This apparently is a much more difficult problem to tackle than what was previously thought of.

Now, the agency is increasing the testing of Georgia foods, modernizing the testing, and shifting staff to place more inspectors in the field.

This comes after the salmonella outbreak involving peanuts and pistachios! The peanut salmonella outbreak was traced to the Peanut Corporation of America’s facility in Georgia that sickened 690 people in 46 states.

AJC states that salmonella is the most common form of food poisoning. Georgia had a rate of about 24 cases per 100,000 people in 2008 alone.

The spotlight continues to grow on Georgia.