Riskiest Foods: 3 Tips for Protecting Your Family From Illness

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The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) is advising reporters and editors to treat the claims made earlier today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) regarding food-borne illnesses, including fresh tuna and oysters, with skepticism, and further urges them to contact NFI directly for comment. Among other things, CSPI’s list ranks foods based on number of outbreaks rather than number of reported illnesses thus distorting which foods are associated with actual risk of illness.
Seafood is a safe and healthy product that is an essential part of the American diet. CSPI has a history of attempting to scare consumers by playing fast and loose with definitions that might mislead the casual reader.
For further details, reporters and editors should consult the following entries on NFI’s media blog: Things to Consider When Covering CSPI’s Latest Report and An Outbreak of Distortion.
It is important to note that by focusing only on the FDA, the CSPI report simply ignores beef, chicken and pork—the proteins Americans eat the most of and a category CSPI admits is ‘high risk’ for food-borne illness. Reporters and consumers should take this report with a grain of salt and a heaping helping of perspective, that's why NFI recommends getting your health and food safety information from doctors and dietitians not the lawyers and lobbyists who work for CSPI.

National Fisheries Institute of DC 4:11PM October 06, 2009

It's the FOOD HANDLERS.
Come on folks.
Who believes the FDA anymore?
They're just a pack of BUSH CRONIES.

YBIRD of WA 4:08PM October 06, 2009

The one tip you don't include is knowing the source of the food you eat. many of the safety problems are the result of our present cheap food policies which are not good for us or for the environent.
Very large production and proccessing of greens increases the risk for wide spread food illness because of the washing and processing spreading contamination. Buying locally produced foods in small quanities helps eliminate the risk.
Eggs are more likely to have samonella contamination when the hens are kept in small cages along with thousands of other birds. Again buy local free range eggs to reduce risk.
Better yeat grow some of your own food. Raw tomatoes are still safe from the garden!

Chris of OR 4:01PM October 06, 2009

There are some pasteurized eggs that you can buy that allow you to make the homemade ice cream that this article tells you to avoid, along with other recipes with raw eggs. For food safety I always like to refer to the four steps of food safety (http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/nfsem.htm).

Ellie of IL 3:55PM October 06, 2009