Editor’s note: This week’s featured nonprofit is The Center for Foodborne Illness Research & Prevention (CFI), one of the organizations we are proud to work with on the upcoming movie Food, Inc., which is in theaters nationwide. Check back every Monday for a new nonprofit that is taking part through innovative and inspirational work.

by Barbara Kowalcyk, Co-founder, CFI

With all the recent foodborne illness outbreaks–spinach, tomatoes, peppers, peanut butter, and the list goes on–food safety is starting to be recognized as a serious public health issue. Almost everyone has experienced a foodborne illness. The CDC estimates that 76 million Americans–that’s one in every four–are sickened each year. For many, foodborne illness is a “bad tummy-ache” that passes in a day or two. But for others–especially children, senior citizens, pregnant women and anyone with a compromised immune system–it can be much more than that. Of those sickened each year, the CDC estimates that 325,000 are hospitalized and 5,000 die. Not surprisingly, the cost of these illnesses is very high–USDA’s Economic Research Service estimates that just five foodborne pathogens (there are over 250) cause $6.9 billion in medical costs, lost productivity and premature deaths - and that doesn’t include the long-term health effects. The reality is that foodborne illness has drastically changed the lives of families and communities across the United States. Unfortunately, my family is one of them.

In July 2001, my 2 ½ year old son Kevin contracted E. coli O157:H7. Nothing could have prepared our family for what happened to him. Kevin crawled around a crib in agony, threw up black bile, went into kidney failure and was placed on a ventilator. Kevin had developed Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS)–a condition for which there is no treatment or cure. If you contract E. coli O157:H7, there is no way to prevent or predict if you will develop HUS. Once HUS develops, the best doctors can do is keep the body alive while the disease runs its course and hope they can fix everything when it is over. Unfortunately, for my child, they couldn’t. On August 11th, after being resuscitated twice and as doctors attempted to put him on a heart and lung machine, our beloved Kevin died. He had gone from being perfectly healthy to being dead in just 12 days. The autopsy later showed that Kevin died of gangrene of the large and small intestine–a condition that is 100% fatal.

In the aftermath of Kevin’s death, our family went looking for answers and were shocked by what we learned about foodborne illness, the lack of public health response and the inadequate food safety oversight in this country. Outraged, we became involved in food safety advocacy, making countless visits to Washington, DC and speaking out nationally. We started petitions to support the Meat and Poultry Pathogen Reduction and Enforcement Act - which became more commonly known as Kevin’s Law. While this piece of legislation never made it out of Congressional committees, the basic principles contained in Kevin’s Law have been incorporated into other, more comprehensive pieces of food safety legislation. We also focused on increasing education and awareness by participating in health fairs and giving countless presentations.

In 2006, my mother, Pat Buck and I co-founded the Center for Foodborne Illness & Prevention (CFI) , a national non-profit organization committed to improving public health by preventing foodborne illness through research, education, advocacy and service. CFI believes that no one sector can achieve this alone - building an environment that promotes food safety throughout the farm to fork continuum is a shared responsibility. Through our work, we have been able to make a positive impact on food safety in the United States. Our work includes:

*Advocating for stronger national food protections and increased funding for food oversight and food surveillance agencies

*Providing comments at USDA and FDA public meetings about important food safety concerns.

*Serving on national food safety committees, including two National Academies of Science committees, USDA’s National Advisory

Committee on Meat and Poultry Inspection, the National Advisory Committee on Microbiological Criteria for Food and Georgetown’s Produce Safety Project’s Advisory Board.

*Participating in national food safety coalitions, such as the Safe Food Coalition, the Partnership for Food Safety Education and Alliance for a Stronger FDA.

*Presenting at national conferences and to other state/local organizations.

*Helping to improve data sharing among federal, state and local public health agencies. CFI was instrumental in improving a 10-year data sharing problem between USDA and CDC.

*Collaborating with Pew Charitable Trusts and medical experts to produce a scientific white paper summarizing what is currently known about the long-term health effects of foodborne illness.

*Developing a Working Group to examine the feasibility of a national foodborne illness health registry, which would assist researchers in studying the long-term health outcomes related to foodborne illness.

*Improving foodborne illness diagnosis and treatment by increasing awareness and education among medical providers.

*Establishing a scholarship/grant program for individuals interested in pursuing public health careers and for victims of serious foodborne disease.

*Participating in the filming of Food Inc., an upcoming documentary by Participant Productions, that focuses on raising awareness about food production in the United States.

At CFI, we are often asked what American consumers can do to help protect themselves against foodborne disease. Unfortunately, consumers have very little control over the safety of the food they consume - they really must rely on food producers and the government to ensure the safety of products they buy. Preventing contamination from occurring in the first place is the most effective way to prevent foodborne illness. However, there are steps that consumers can take to help improve the food oversight and reduce their risk of serious foodborne illness:

*Visit www.foodborneillness.org to learn more about CFI.

*Become involved in CFI by contacting cfi@foodborneillness.org.

*As a non-profit, CFI depends on public support to carry on our work. Consider making a tax-deductible donation to CFI.

*Be informed about important food safety issues. Visit www.foodsafety.gov to learn about food safety recalls and alerts.

*Be Food Smart and follow CFI’s six safe food practices:

1. Use safe water and food. Know the source of your food. Remember, when in doubt, throw it out! Your health is worth more than the cost of any food.
2. Clean. Wash your hands and clean food preparation surfaces between and after preparing raw foods. Use separate utensils for raw and prepared foods.
3. Separate. Keep raw foods separated from prepared foods to avoid cross contamination - at home and in the grocery store.
4. Cook. To kill pathogens, food must be cooked to the proper temperature. Be sure to use a meat thermometer!
5. Chill. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Don’t let food stand for more than 2 hours at room temperature.
6. Report foodborne illness. If you are sickened, seek medical attention, get tested and report your illness to the appropriate public health agencies.

*Educate yourself about the way food production and distribution affects our health, the environment and our culture.

*Vote with your dollar. Go see Food, Inc.

*Our current food system is broken. Demand safer food protections. Send a letter asking Congress to pass strong food safety legislation now.

CFI is proud of the work that it has accomplished but we know our work is not done. Our growing population and global economy demands that we find innovative, science-based solutions for improving food safety and public health. On November 6, 2008, the Government Accountability Office placed food safety on a list of 13 “Urgent Issues” facing President Obama and the 111th Congress. Major reform, as well as dedicated funding, is needed to improve food oversight. Please join us in affecting a change!