From Boar's Head deli meat and waffles to McDonald's Quarter Pounders, this year's illness outbreaks — some deadly — and food recalls may have Americans wondering whether there are new risks in the U.S. food supply.
But experts say it's business as usual when it comes to the complicated task of keeping food safe.
The U.S. ranks near the top for food safety out of 113 countries included in the Global Food Security Index, which measures aspects of food availability and quality, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
“The U.S. food supply remains one of the safest in the world,” FDA officials said in a statement.
People might be alarmed at the “number of really high-profile recalls that affect a lot of people,” said Teresa Murray, who directs the consumer watchdog office for the consumer-interest advocacy group PIRG.
“These are products that people eat on a regular basis," she said.
On average, the two federal agencies that oversee the U.S. food supply — the FDA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — announce more than 300 food recalls and alerts each year. The FDA regulates about 80% of foods, including dairy products, fruit and vegetables, while the USDA regulates meat and poultry, among other foods.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually tracks about 800 foodborne illness outbreaks, in which two or more people are sickened by the same food or drink. Most of the estimated 48 million cases of food poisoning each year are not related to confirmed outbreaks, the agency said.
The pace of food recalls and alerts appears to be brisk this year, with more than 300 logged already as of mid-October. But recalls are different than illness outbreaks, which are increasingly detected by sophisticated genetic sequencing, said Donald Schaffner, a food science expert at Rutgers University.
“I don't think the food supply is getting less safe,” Schaffner said. “I think we're stuck in place. We're not getting any better.”
Federal data shows the U.S. has made little progress toward reducing rates of foodborne illness as called for in Healthy People 2030, an effort to boost population-level health and well-being.
The nation has budged only slightly since 2016-2018 in reducing infections caused by salmonella and listeria — the latter being the germ behind the deadly Boar's Head outbreak, in which at least 10 people died and nearly 50 were hospitalized.
And there has been little or no progress in cutting infections caused by campylobacter or the type of toxin-producing E. coli linked to this week's McDonald's outbreak.
“People should be reminded that food safety is a serious public health issue. All food carries risk” said Barbara Kowalcyk, director of the Institute for Food Safety and Nutrition Security at George Washington University. “We need to remember that most of our food comes from the ground or from animals.”
The landmark Food Safety Modernization Act, enacted in 2011, gave the FDA new authority to regulate the way foods are grown, harvested and processed. Under a rule finalized in 2022, which takes effect in 2026, suppliers will be required to keep records to trace fresh produce like the onions in the McDonald's outbreak back to the source.
Such efforts alone can't guarantee safety, Kowalcyk said. Testing, inspections, training and education can all reduce the chances that food becomes contaminated and potentially causes illnesses.
“In food safety, no mitigation or risk strategy is perfect,” she said. “You build in hurdles across the system and with the combination of the hurdles, you will catch the problem.”
Limited funding for public health agencies may erode those efforts, Kowalcyk noted.
On a recent call with food safety advocates and reporters, FDA chief Dr. Robert Califf said funding for the agency's food safety duties has remained stagnant for years.
“It has kept up with the cost of living but nothing incrementally for three decades in an environment which is really complicated, if you look at the human food system,” Califf said.
People can cut their risk of foodborne illness by following safe handling practices, including avoiding cross-contamination of foods, proper storage and frequent handwashing and sanitizing surfaces and kitchen tools at home. Beyond that, they can put pressure on stores, restaurants and government officials to ensure food safety.
“You can reach out to your congressional representative and tell them food safety is important to you,” Kowalcyk said. “You can also contact food companies. If you see something, say something.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
FILE - An aerial view of the Boar's Head processing plant that was tied to a deadly food poisoning outbreak, Aug. 29, 2024, in Jarratt, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)
Pictured is a McDonald's bag with an order for a Quarter Pounder sandwich purchased Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Doha on Thursday to meet with Qatari officials who have been key mediators for Hamas, as the U.S. struggles to break the logjam of cease-fire negotiations between Israel and the militant group.
Blinken is on his 11th trip to the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
In Gaza, Palestinian officials said an Israeli strike on a school where displaced people were sheltering killed at least 17 people on Thursday, mostly women and children.
An additional 42 people were wounded in the strike in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the Awda Hospital, which received the casualties. Among the dead were seven children as young as 11 months, as well as three women. The Israeli military said it targeted Hamas militants inside the school, without providing evidence.
The Israel-Hamas war began after Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, blew holes in Israel’s security fence and stormed in, killing some 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducting 250 others. Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not differentiate between militants and civilians.
Israel is also fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Lebanon’s health ministry says the total toll over the past year is over 2,500 killed and 12,000 wounded. The fighting in Lebanon has driven 1.2 million people from their homes, including more than 400,000 children, according to the United Nations children’s agency.
Over the past several weeks, Israeli strikes have killed much of Hezbollah’s top leadership.
Here's the latest:
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel’s government says it will be sending the head of its Mossad spy agency to Qatar on Sunday to partake in a new round of in-person talks about a potential cease-fire and the release of hostages held by Hamas.
The Israeli prime minister’s office said Thursday that its spy chief, David Barnea, would leave Sunday for talks in Doha, the capital of Qatar, with the head of the CIA, Bill Burns, and the prime minister of Qatar.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier Thursday that he expected the revival of cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas “in the coming days.” Hamas has not publicly confirmed whether it will be sending a delegation to Doha. Many of the militant leaders are based in the Gulf Arab emirate.
Washington and Qatar have been key mediators in the long-stalled negotiations. Neither Hamas nor Israel have shown any sign of softening their demands since negotiations sputtered to a halt over the summer.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s health ministry said Thursday that 19 people were killed and 118 wounded in the past 24 hours, raising the total toll over the past year of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah to 2,593 killed and 12,119 wounded.
Lebanon’s crisis response unit recorded 111 airstrikes and shelling incidents in the past day, mostly concentrated in southern Lebanon and the Nabatiyeh province.
An Israeli airstrike in the Bekaa Valley killed five people and wounded several others on a Hillaniyeh town in Baalbeck, Lebanon’s state media said.
Some 1,096 centers are sheltering 191,692 people, including 44,319 families, displaced by the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, the health ministry report said. Among these shelters, 928 have reached full capacity.
Despite a major border crossing between Lebanon and Syria being out of commission after Israel hit the road several times, crowds have flowed across the border seeking relative safety in Syria. Between Sept. 23 and Oct. 24, Lebanese General Security recorded nearly half a million people crossing into Syria, including 346,529 Syrian and 153,282 Lebanese citizens, the report said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced another $135 million in aid to the Palestinians. He said it is critical that aid enters Gaza.
Blinken spoke in Qatar on Thursday on his 11th visit to the region since the outbreak of the war in Gaza. The United States has pressed Israel to allow more aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
BEIRUT — At least one person was killed and others wounded in Israeli airstrikes targeting Syria’s Damascus and Homs countryside, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria’s state media reported.
Israeli warplanes targeted a government building near a military fuel station in the Kafr Sousa neighborhood in Damascus, killing one person and injuring three others, according to the Syrian Observatory. The strike also triggered fires in the area.
Citing a military source, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that the Israeli strikes were launched from the direction of the Golan Heights and from the direction of northern Lebanon.
On a road in Al-Qusayr countryside, less than 10 kilometers from the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli airstrike targeted a truck near a military site, killing one soldier and wounding four others, the Syrian Observatory said.
SANA reported that one soldier was killed and seven others were injured, though it did not specify which strike caused the casualties.
Israel has conducted strikes on Iranian-linked targets in Syria for years but has intensified these attacks following the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel last year.
BEIRUT — Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister is calling for an immediate cease-fire, the full implementation of the U.N. resolution that ended the last Israel-Hezbollah war and the deployment of 8,000 Lebanese troops to a buffer zone along the border with Israel.
Najib Mikati spoke Thursday at a conference in Paris in support of Lebanon.
The Lebanese army has largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It says Israeli forces have targeted its soldiers on eight occasions, killing and wounding several. Israel apologized for a deadly strike on Sunday.
U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war, called for Hezbollah and Israeli forces to withdraw from areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River and for the area to be controlled by the Lebanese army and U.N. peacekeepers.
Israel says the resolution was never implemented and that Hezbollah built up military infrastructure all the way to the border. Lebanon has accused Israel of ignoring other provisions, including by violating its airspace.
The Lebanese army has around 80,000 forces, with around 5,000 deployed in the south.
Representing the Lebanese Army at the Paris conference, Brig. Gen. Youssef Haddad said that Lebanon is working on recruiting 1,500 additional soldiers to help implement the U.N. resolution, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Hezbollah boasts tens of thousands of fighters. Lebanon’s military is not strong enough to impose its will on the militant group or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — The director of a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip says it is facing a “catastrophic” shortage of basic supplies and that ambulances can no longer service the facility.
Israel has been carrying out a major offensive in northern Gaza for more than two weeks. Hundreds of people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes. The military says it is battling Hamas fighters who regrouped in the north, which was one of the first targets of the ground offensive at the start of the war.
Dr. Hossam Abu Safiyeh, the director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said in a video message released Thursday that some 150 wounded people are being treated there, including 14 children in intensive care or the neonatal department.
“There is a very large number of wounded people, and we lose at least one person every hour because of the lack of medical supplies and medical staff,” he said.
“Our ambulances can’t transfer wounded people,” he said. “Those who can arrive by themselves to the hospital receive care, but those who don’t just die in the streets.”
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Footage shared with The Associated Press shows medical staff tending to premature babies and several older children in hospital beds, some with severe burns. One child is seen attached to a breathing machine, with bandages on her face and flies hovering over her.
“We are providing the bare minimum to patients. Everyone is paying the price of what is happening now in northern Gaza,” Abu Safiyeh said.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in the north left largely inaccessible because of the fighting. The war has gutted the health system across Gaza, with only 16 of 39 hospitals even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organization.
PARIS — France pledged to provide a 100-million euro ($108-million) package to support Lebanon at an international conference Thursday, as President Emmanuel Macron said “massive aid” is needed to support the country where war between Hezbollah militants and Israel has displaced a million people, killed over 2,500 and deepened an economic crisis.
“In the immediate term, massive aid is needed for the Lebanese population, both for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war and for the communities hosting them,” Macron said in his opening speech at the conference.
French organizers hope participants’ financial pledges of humanitarian aid will meet the $426 million the United Nations says is urgently needed.
Italy this week announced new aid of 10 million euros ($10.8 million) and Germany on Wednesday pledged an additional 60 million euros ($64.7 million) for people in Lebanon.
BEIRUT — The Lebanese military says an Israeli strike killed three of its troops, including an officer, as they were evacuating wounded people in southern Lebanon.
In a Thursday post on X, it said the strike hit the outskirts of the southern town of Yater. The army says Israeli forces have targeted it on eight occasions since all-out war broke out between Israel and Hezbollah in September.
The Israeli military said Thursday it was looking into whether “a number of soldiers of the Lebanese army were accidentally harmed” after it targeted what it says was Hezbollah infrastructure.
The military said in a statement that it does not deliberately target Lebanese troops.
It earlier apologized for a strike on Sunday that killed three Lebanese soldiers, saying it had targeted a vehicle in an area where Hezbollah had recently launched attacks without realizing it belonged to the army.
Lebanon’s armed forces have largely kept to the sidelines in the latest conflict. The army is not powerful enough to impose its will on Hezbollah or to resist Israel’s ground invasion.
Jewish revelers dance in a circle during the holiday of Simchat Torah, on the first anniversary on the Jewish calendar of the day Hamas militants attacked Israel, in Jerusalem, Thursday Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike on Mansouri village, as it seen from the southern city of Tyre, south Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
FILE - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, after visiting it, on Saturday, March 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
FILE - Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Friday, Sept. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith, File)
Damaged furnitures left on destroyed apartments that were hit by Israeli airstrikes, in Tyre, south Lebanon, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
France's President Emmanuel Macron reacts next to Lebanon's Prime Minister caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, left, and Lebanon's Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdallah Bou Habibas they arrive for an international press conference in support of Lebanon, in Paris, Thursday, Oct.24, 2024. (Alain Jocard, Pool via AP)
French President Emmanuel Macron gestures Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024 at the Elysee Palace in Paris. (AP Photo/Louise Delmotte)
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani waits to receive U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)
Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chief of Protocol Ibrahim Fakhroo welcomes U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, as he arrives in Doha, Qatar, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)
A displaced family, who fled the ongoing Hezbollah-Israel war in south Lebanon, sit on mattresses inside one of Beirut's oldest and best known movie theatres, Le Colisee, where they have taken shelter, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, meets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2024. (Nathan Howard/Pool via AP)
Flame and smoke rises from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Flames and smoke rise from buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes on Dahiyeh, in the southern suburb of Beirut, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
