Washington - The US Agriculture Department said it overestimated how many Americans get sick each year from eggs infected with salmonella, and lowered its estimate to 661,000 from 883,000.
The embarrassing revision came in the USDA's first attempt to create a computer model to calculate how many people fall ill from salmonella- contaminated eggs and egg products each year. Since most consumers do not visit the doctor for mild food poisoning, scientists say it is difficult to make valid estimates.
Salmonella causes mild diarrhea and cramps in most people, but can be fatal for infants, the elderly or people with a weak immune system. Among the estimated 661,000 annual illnesses linked to salmonella in eggs, the USDA said about 3,300 people were hospitalized and 390 died.
"All of these numbers have a fairly wide range of uncertainties," said Richard Whiting of the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Whiting was part of a team of USDA scientists who issued a final risk assessment report on salmonella in eggs.
The revision was made after the team realized it made a mistake in calculations, he said.
Last week, the USDA said the report would show an average of 883,705 Americans got sick from salmonella-tainted eggs each year. But , the report estimated 661,663 illnesses occurred each year, using the same data from government studies, industry and academics.
The rate of illness was based on annual US production of 46.8 billion eggs, and salmonella contamination in 2.3 billion of them, according to the report. That was about one bad egg in every 20,000.
The US Centers for Disease Control has estimated that between two and four million cases of salmonella occur each year from various foods, including undercooked poultry and milk.
The USDA's revised estimate of egg salmonella illnesses was criticized by consumer groups and the industry.
"This seems like a conservative estimate, and much lower than we would have thought," said Elizabeth Dahl, a food safety expert with Center for Science in the Public Interest. Some USDA sources had indicated that the rate of salmonella contamination could be as high as one in 10,000 eggs, she said.
The United Egg Producers said the estimates were based on limited data, and that the number of reported salmonella outbreaks involving two or more people had declined since 1989.
But even if the new USDA estimates were correct, the average US consumer would encounter a contaminated egg only once every 42 years, the egg producers said.
The USDA report also said that the rate of illnesses from eggs contaminated with salmonella could be reduced by as much as 12 % if strict temperature controls were maintained.
Newly laid eggs, which are about 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the henhouse, should be immediately cooled to 45 degrees and maintained at that temperature through processing and distribution, the report said.
Long-standing USDA sanitation rules required egg processors to wash freshly laid eggs in warm temperatures, Snowdon said.
The USDA and the Food and Drug Administration, which share responsibility for regulating eggs, said last month they would try to make eggs safer by changing processing, handling and storage procedures.
Regulators are considering requiring "sell by" dates on fresh eggs, controlling the temperatures of trucks carrying eggs to retailers and creating a nationwide surveillance program to track salmonella in chicken flocks.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
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