News New Report Reveals More Americans Got Sick

News New Report Reveals More Americans Got Sick

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It’s been more than a century since the passage of the "Pure Food and Drug "Act, which aimed to ensure the sanitary preparation of food. Since then, food safety has become something people often take for granted. Most of us assume that the food we buy at the store, cook at home, and eat at restaurants won’t make us sick.

But 2024 saw a disturbing trend: Hospitalizations and deaths from contaminated food doubled from the year prior. The biggest culprits were products later pulled from shelves due to concerns about  Listeria, and E. coli. Recalls stemming from these pathogens increased by 41% from 2023 to 2024.1

Those are some of the key findings of a new report recently released by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), which dug into which products were recalled last year, the reasons why, and the seriousness of any associated outbreaks.

The results highlight the need for food safety improvements,  consumer watchdog associate at PIRG and coauthor of the report, told Health. “What we should take away from this increase [in hospitalizations] is that we can all do more as consumers, regulators, and companies to protect people from foodborne illness,” he said.

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