Influencing Public Policy: Food Safety

In January 1993, one of the worst outbreaks of food poisoning in U.S. history provided a stark example of how human-made catastrophe can shape federal policy. The outbreak was linked to undercooked hamburger meat used by Jack in the Box franchise restaurants in Washington state, California, Idaho, and Nevada. Four children died and hundreds of people were hospitalized, many suffering lasting brain damage or kidney failure.

The culprit was a strain of bacteria called Escherichia coli 0157:H7, which lives in a cow’s intestines and is especially toxic to children and elderly adults. An investigation revealed that Jack in the Box employees had failed to cook hamburgers to 155 degrees, the temperature known to kill E.coli. Additionally, Washington state health officials determined that the beef used had been contaminated at a processing plant before it reached the restaurants. Compounding matters, the beef industry had paid little attention to preventing the spread of E. coli 0157:H7, under a long-held belief that proper cooking would remove bacteria in meat, and that cooking was not its responsibility.

But public outcry over the Jack in the Box outbreak became a call for better regulation. In 1994, Congress responded by declaring E. coli 0157:H7 an adulterant in ground beef. It instituted a procedure for testing for the pathogen and required that contaminated meat be taken off the market.

But while Congress eventually passed a law giving the FDA more tools to fight contamination by other bacteria like salmonella, the law still hasn’t been fully funded or implemented.