Foreword
Although the U.S. food supply is considered one of the safest in the world, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million Americans get sick, more than 300,000 are hospitalized, and about 5,000 die each year because of something they ate. Recent food scares have involved such all-American staples as spinach, peanut butter, hamburger meat, and pet food. Food-borne illnesses take an economic as well as a personal toll on communities. Industry representatives estimate losses for the California spinach E. coli poisoning in 2006 to be in the $37 million to $47 million range.A number of genetic,…
