Food poisoning lawsuits, medical care, lost productivity cost $152 billion a year
A new report showing the high cost of foodborne illness in the United States could help solidify support for major reform in food safety law currently on the table in Washington.
On average, food poisoning costs $1,850 per case nationwide, or $152 billion annually.
"We cannot afford to waste billions of dollars fighting preventable diseases after it is too late,'' said Erik Olson, Olson, director of food and consumer product safety with the Pew Health Group.
The Produce Safety Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, published the report. It was written by Robert L. Scharff, a former FDA economist who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Consumer Sciences at The Ohio State University.
Scharff said in a press release: "This study puts the problem of foodborne illness in its proper perspective and should help facilitate reasonable action designed to mitigate this problem."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that approximately 76 million new cases of food-related illness result in 5,000 deaths and 325,000 hospitalizations each year.
The report, available online, uses an FDA cost-estimate approach: health-related costs are the sum of medical costs (physician services, pharmaceuticals, and hospital costs) and losses to quality of life (lost life expectancy, pain and suffering, and functional disability).
The ten states with the highest costs per case are: Hawaii, Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, the District of Columbia, Mississippi, New York, Massachusetts and New Jersey.
The report said produce is linked to the largest number of outbreaks involving FDA-regulated foods. For example, E. coli O157:H7 cases in produce accounted for 39 percent of outbreaks and 54 percent of illnesses. Using CDC data, the report estimates that foodborne illness costs related to produce alone are almost $39 billion per year in the U.S.
The study broke out estimated health-related costs and lost productivity of chronic, or long-term effects of certain foodborne illnesses. For instance, HUS E. coli, or hemolytic uremic syndrome, is estimated to cost our society $627 million per year.
