Foodborne illness declined during pandemic lockdowns: What can we learn?

INTERVIEWER: The federal government is looking into three Salmonella outbreaks that have made several Minnesotans and many other people across the country sick. Three people in the state died more than 20 became ill after eating tainted cantaloupe late last year. Just last week a brand of charcuterie meats were recalled after two dozen people got sick including in Minnesota. And back in November there was an outbreak in dog food affecting pet owners who touch the food or their dog saliva.

The CDC reports that cases of foodborne illness declined during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic but by 2022, the latest year for which data is available, foodborne illnesses had increased to levels seen before the pandemic. So what's going on? Joining us to help explain this is someone wellversed in health and safety issues in the complicated system that churns out much of our food. Lisa Robinson is the vice president of Global Food Safety and Public Health at Minnesota based Ecolab. Lisa welcome.

LISA ROBINSON: Thank you. Thank you for having me today.

INTERVIEWER: I just listed three outbreaks in just the last couple of months do you think that's out of the ordinary in your experience or par for the course, in a sense?

LISA ROBINSON: Well, I can tell you that we know from CDC data that 48 million people get sick every year within the US, 128,000 go to the hospital, and unfortunately we see 3,000 people die each year and those numbers are even magnified when you look at global numbers. So I wouldn't say it's always par for the course but I'll say that micro issues or microbiological issues that happen through food does unfortunately create some foodborne illnesses that happen to people.

INTERVIEWER: I do want to talk about the illnesses themselves but I'm just curious from where you stand, what might explain why illnesses declined during pandemic lockdowns but they've since rebounded?

LISA ROBINSON: So I can tell you that the dip in part could be due to widespread public health interventions that were happening during that time. We saw a lot more people increasing handwashing but we also saw reduced travel especially in international travel. There were more telehealth items that would happen during that time frame as well as a lot of restaurants due to some of the mitigations had to close during that time. And also you saw a lot of people did not necessarily want to go to the hospital if they were having some digestive issues, they didn't necessarily want to visit the hospital during that time but they may have gone if the event for them became much more untenable and that's when they may have gone to the hospital but you did see several of the declines happen during that time.

INTERVIEWER: So a lot of factors obviously. You mentioned microbiology, CDC less Salmonella as the second most common cause of food related infection, there's E.coli, norovirus, I understand is responsible for about 60% of the foodborne outbreaks in Minnesota every year, and wouldn't the source of that be infected food service workers?

LISA ROBINSON: That would be in part. So one of the things that we tell our customers that are in the food service and quick service industries to really look at making sure that people who are ill, or their employees that are ill, that they're not working during that time. Because norovirus does tend to spread quite rapidly if you have an ill person that is working because they would have issues maybe with digestive issues, and that would lead them to have to go to the restroom quite a bit. And then in terms of making sure handwashing and where they're touching afterwards could be an impact on them. So we want to make sure that we get ill people out and that we make sure all of our surfaces are cleaned especially if we've had an ill person that's been working in a restaurant.

INTERVIEWER: So there's the human element here. I'm wondering, and I don't know if you have an answer to this but is there a potential link between foodborne illnesses and climate change because some pathogens do better and warmer wetter climates, is that a potential issue and if that is what does the food system do about that?

LISA ROBINSON: I think there's definitely some connection between climate issues, especially when it comes to water scarcity and availability and some of the things that people are doing to try to make sure that, on the manufacturing side and on the growing side, that they have water available to produce the types of products that we enjoy eating every day. So we do look at the water treatment pieces and how when you think about climate change the potential especially as temperatures go up in certain areas, how that could impact the pathogens being able to migrate from one particular source to humans as well as even back to different other animals. And so there is definitely some potential connection between looking at climate change and also foodborne illness.

INTERVIEWER: Sounds like you are actively working with your clients on this issue.

LISA ROBINSON: Yes we do. We do quite a bit of work with just trying to help understand what the insights are, looking at what the global data as well as our local data is telling us and trying to share that not only with our own associates because we spend a lot of time out in these sites but also with our customers so we can help make sure that they are preparing foods in the best way possible for their consumers.

INTERVIEWER: And when-- a lot of people are listening right now, what can just the average consumer do to reduce their risk of getting sick?

LISA ROBINSON: I would say they got to follow the four simple steps of clean, separate, cook, and chill. When you are cooking your products, I know a lot of people look at their food and they say, this is done but use a thermometer to confirm that especially when you're cooking products like ground beef and chicken. Cleaning your-- washing your hands and cleaning your utensils in between the times that you are cooking, and then also separating products, you don't want to have raw products and cook products on the same cutting boards for an example, and making sure that your refrigerator is at the 40 degree temperature and it's cooling your products that you are holding refrigerated at the proper levels.

INTERVIEWER: And that's for consumers, for some of your larger food service clients what do you recommend they do?

LISA ROBINSON: I recommend that they have a strong food safety management system, it's been proven through some data that the CDC has done and the FDA that having a strong food safety management system and a certified food protection manager help build out what their protocols need to be. They need to have programs in place to address the five major risk factors which are around poor personal hygiene, improper food holding, time and temperatures, contaminated equipment, and inadequate cooking, and then seeking help from their service providers if they have questions or just need additional support to help make sure that they are reducing the risk to their consumers.

INTERVIEWER: Well, Lisa Robinson I've enjoyed the conversation. Thank you for your time.

LISA ROBINSON: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

INTERVIEWER: Lisa Robinson is the vice president of Global Food Safety and Public Health at Ecolab.