ERS provides analyses of the economic issues affecting the safety of
the U.S. food supply, including the effectiveness of alternative policies
and equity of alternative policies and programs designed to protect consumers
from unsafe food. Food safety became increasingly important in U.S. policy,
research, and health arenas in the 1990s, illustrated by the 1997 President's
Food Safety Initiative and the FoodNet system, established in 1995 to
better identify the sources of foodborne disease.
Foodborne disease is primarily caused by ingesting pathogens, such as
Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria monocytogenes,
and E. coli O157. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) of the Department of Health and Human Services, estimates there
are 250
foodborne pathogens and that foodborne diseases cause approximately
76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, 5,000 deaths, and an unknown
number of chronic conditions in the United States each year (see Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States).
Pathogens exist throughout the food chain, meaning options for improving
food safety exist from the farm to the table. Both USDA and Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) have emphasized improving industry's harvest, slaughter,
and processing practices with their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control
Points (HACCP) regulations. An alliance of government, industry, and consumer
groups developed the "Fight BAC"
campaign in 1997 to educate consumers on how their consumption choices
and food preparation methods can reduce their risk of foodborne illness.
The food industry has developed its own agenda of inventing new technologies,
management systems, HACCP programs, and contracts and vertical coordination
to control foodborne pathogens.
ERS assesses the issue of food safety from
an economic perspective:
- ERS estimates the human illness costs of foodborne disease to help
policymakers identify the magnitude of the societal impact of foodborne
disease. In 2000, ERS estimated the
costs of foodborne disease at $6.9 billion per year for five foodborne
pathogens. Unique disease outcome trees are constructed for each
foodborne pathogen to estimate the lifetime consequences of an acute
foodborne illness, including chronic complications such as kidney failure
and paralysis. These estimates, updated and expanded by ERS, help policymakers
identify the magnitude of the societal impact of foodborne disease.
ERS has funded two long-term studies to estimate consumers' willingness
to pay higher prices for safer food. The results of these studies will
be used to update ERS estimates of the benefits of safer food.
- ERS research on Consumer Food Safety Behavior: A Case Study in Hamburger Cooking and Ordering found that
consumption of rare and medium rare hamburgers decreased during the
1990s in response to concern for food safety. The study estimated that
the changes in behaviorother factors held constantreduced
the risk of infection due to E. coli O157:H7 by 4.6 percent, at a savings
of $7.4 million annually in medical costs and lost productivity.
- ERS uses surveys, theory, and case studies to identify and analyze
economic incentives for improving food safety. These incentives can
take the form of regulatory requirements or even private goals (firms'
desire to avoid legal liability/foodborne disease outbreaks, for example,
or to differentiate their product as being safer than other products).
ERS has conducted a nationally representative
survey of meat and poultry firms on the costs of HACCP regulation
and adoption of food safety technologies. The data are being analyzed
to estimate cost functions and to relate investments in new food safety
technology to production of safer food products. The first results from the surveys are presented in Food Safety Innovation in the United States: Evidence from the Meat Industry. ERS also analyzes case
studies of innovations (new equipment, new testing, and new management
systems) in the beef industry to see which are the most significant
factors contributing to the innovation and the magnitude of the economic
incentives.
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