A cafeteria worker from a high school in North Dakota severed up more than just lunch to the children. In May 2005, after suffering severe flu like symptoms for the better part of the weekend, the worker felt good enough to chop lettuce for the school’s lunch. By the next day, 52 students along with eight faculty members had fallen violently ill with similar symptoms as the cafeteria worker.
State officials investigating the outbreak determined that the foodborne culprit was the Norwalk virus or as it is better known, the norovirus. Norovirus causes severe vomiting and illness symptoms similar to a influenza. The health department determined that the worker contaminated the lettuce she was preparing when she failed to use gloves as she cut it. Since lettuce is typically not cooked or prepared hot, there was no way to kill the norovirus once it made it onto the lettuce.
No foodborne illness has sickened more school kids in the past decade than norovirus. Norovirus consistently ranks as one of the most common foodborne pathogens in the U.S. Typically the pathogen is passed from person to food when improper food handling procedures are followed.
Data kept by the CDC show that norovirus caused at least one-third of the 23,000 foodborne illness cases reported in schools from 1998 through 2007. That is about 7,500 sick children according to the USA TODAY article. But those figures represent only a small number of all norovirus cases. Norovirus was suspected but never confirmed in 2,000 additional foodborne illnesses in schools during that period, and according to the CDC, many more cases are never reported to the authorities
According to the article, more than 8,500 schools failed to have their kitchens inspected last year, and another 18,000 fell short of a requirement in the Child Nutrition Act that calls for cafeteria inspections at least twice a year. The mandate is part of the National School Lunch Program, which provides food for 31 million schoolchildren across the nation. Almost every school in the United States receives food as part of the program.
The UDSA, which oversees the National School Lunch Program, says that while the law is on the books there is no way to effectively enforce it. It is supposed to be a requirement to receive food as part of the lunch program, but the law does not say what will happen to schools that do not get inspected.
Federal data shows that more than half the schools in eight investigated states failed to meet the requirement for two inspections during the 2007-08 school year. In Maine, the state where the fewest schools conformed to the law, less than 1% of schools met the requirement that year.
USDA officials, however, do not know which schools have had their kitchens inspected and which ones have not. That’s because the USDA requires only that the states provide the number of schools that have been inspected, not the schools’ names.
This lack of oversight is unfortunately more of the norm for the nation’s food safety regulatory agencies. Underfunding along with ever growing responsibilities has created a situation in which agencies like the FDA, USDA and FSIS have simply more on their plate than they can efficiently handle. The President’s administration has maintained that this system of failure is going to change but for now our current system is leaving our most precious and vulnerable resources at risk of potentially lethal foodborne illnesses such as Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7.
