Do you like eating out? You may be more likely to get sick. It turns out that Americans are twice as likely to get sick form food prepared at a restaurant than food prepared at home.
A Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) report analyzed 10 years of outbreak data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This data covered years from 2002 to 2011. In the end, CSPI looked at 10,409 foodborne disease outbreaks, according to Food Quality News.
It turns out that more than 1,610 outbreaks in restaurants sickened more than 28,000 people, according to UPI. A mere 893 outbreaks were linked to private homes, which cause only 13,000 cases of foodborne illness. That's a significant reduction when compared to restaurant incidents.
That said, it looks as if the number of outbreaks declined by 23 percent from 1998 to 2008.
"We believe the lower number of outbreaks during this period is mostly due to reporting declines in one populous state," stated the report, according to Food Quality News. "There were no trends suggesting a national reduction in state outbreak investigation and reporting. Of the 42 states with enough information to measure changes in the number of outbreaks reported over time, many improved for maintained stable reporting (20 improved, 6 maintained stable reporting)."
CDC estimates that each year, about one in six Americans, or 48 million people, become sick from foodborne diseases. Of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die, according to UPI. These latest findings reveal that restaurants must be diligent when it comes to food preparation. That way, the public's health can be kept in balance.
