A year ago, Brad Frey never would have imagined he’d be standing in front of officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and urging them to do more to prevent outbreaks of Listeria monocytogenes. Despite living in the middle of “crop country” outside Santa Cruz, CA, he had never heard of Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne bacteria less well-known than Salmonella or E. coli, but one that can more often be fatal. But Frey was painfully aware of Listeria by December 2014, when his mother, Shirlee Jean Frey, passed away from a Listeria infection after eating a contaminated caramel apple purchased at Safeway. This past week, he and other foodborne illness victims from around the U.S. traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with congressional aides and have the opportunity to directly address FDA and food industry officials at the agency’s kickoff meeting for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
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