The focus of the latest issue of CDC Foundation’s Business Pulse web series is food safety. Business Pulse: Food Safety, published Wednesday, describes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fights foodborne diseases to protect American consumers and businesses from contaminated foods. It includes an interactive infographic, a list of links to CDC’s food safety resources, and a Q&A with Robert Tauxe, deputy director of the agency’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Environmental Diseases. Each year, 1 in 6 Americans is sickened by foodborne diseases, and 3,000 die as a result of unsafe food. Foodborne illness is estimated to cost the United States more than $15.5 billion annually. The infographic includes important points to share with employees and advice for employees who are dining out, bringing lunch from home, eating at a company cafeteria, planning a company potluck or traveling overseas. “Foodborne diseases are challenging for America’s employers—from rising healthcare costs associated with treating foodborne illnesses to lost worker productivity,” the infographic reads. The Grocery Manufacturers Association reports that grocery-producing companies that have recalled a product in the past five years experienced an estimated financial impact of $10 million to $30 million per recall. In his Q&A, Tauxe adds that “incorporating food safety into worker health programs in any company can help prevent employees and their family members from getting sick and missing work or school. What each of us do and say about food safety matters.” Tauxe also describes the creation of CDC’s national laboratory network called PulseNet and the development of whole-genome sequencing. Business Pulse, which focuses on a different topic each quarter, is managed by the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit entity established by Congress that forges partnerships between CDC and the private sector to support the agency’s work fighting threats to health and safety.
