Food Poisoning Costs America Over $77 Billion A Year

If you eat a bad mussel or an undercooked burger, you might find yourself vomiting and under the weather for days. It's miserable -- and if you're elderly, a small child or immuno-compromised, potentially lethal. But what's the cumulative economic impact of all these bouts of food poisoning across America? According to a new study by Robert Scharff of Ohio State University, it's over $77 billion in the U.S. alone, every year.

This new figure is actually a significant downward revision for Scharff's last tabulation of $152 billion, and reflects better data from the Center For Disease Control. But it's still almost twice the annual cost of the common cold. And it's roughly as much as the total annual cost of influenza in America.

This parity is especially striking when you consider that the flu affects significantly more people than food poisoning each year. The CDC estimates that 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die, each year, from food poisoning -- whereas more than 200,000 are hospitalized for the flu in a typical season.

Comments

[adamben]

10:51 AM on 01/05/2012

if food processing plants/companies refuse to keep clean and safe work places then they should be fined to cost to projected cost of the illnesses they will potentially cause, to consumers and workers at those plants, plus additional fines for willfully conspiring to cause harm to people health and well being, and arrested for felonies when those illnesses do occur.

or, they can allow the federal government to regulate the food supply and provide enough money for the appropriate number of inspectors, which would absolve the plants of being fined for "normal" contaminations. your choice.

[baxtron]

12:24 PM on 01/04/2012

When will HuffPo be sued by the meat packing industry for running this article.

[patianneb]

11:29 AM on 01/04/2012

More of the REAL cost of cheap food. This is the sort of information that needs a LOT more coverage.