Waffles, chicken, and deli meat: Why it feels like food recalls are happening everywhere.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburger after reports of an E. coli outbreak linked to the sandwich making Americans sick.

The investigation comes after food poisoning incidents in which deli meat, waffles, eggs and other foods contaminated with E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes and salmonella have led to product recalls, hundreds of hospitalizations and even deaths across the United States. This was done amid a rapid increase in the number of cases. .

There are two main reasons for the recent increase in the number of contaminated food announcements. For one, the U.S. food system has become much more complex in recent decades. There are now more imported and highly processed foods, which increases the opportunities for diseases to enter the food system.

Second, thanks to the Food Safety Modernization Act, governments have better and faster tracking capabilities. This makes it easier for the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, two agencies that investigate such outbreaks, to trace the source of the problem. It also makes it easier for companies to recall contaminated products before they spread further into the food system and cause illness to large numbers of people.

Here’s what you need to know about the latest cases of food poisoning and why these infections are occurring.

The latest problem with contaminated food occurred at McDonald’s, where E. coli linked to the Quarter Pounder spread to 10 states and sickened 49 people. However, the actual number of people affected by this outbreak is likely much higher, according to the CDC. The exact source of the outbreak is under investigation, but the CDC believes it may have been caused by onions or beef in hamburgers.

E. coli, a type of bacteria, is not dangerous in itself. Amesh Adalja, a senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told Vox: I have E. coli in my body, especially in my gastrointestinal tract. The problem is that some strains can make people sick and are especially dangerous if they get into water supplies. Contaminated water used for agricultural irrigation can contaminate food. Deadly strains can also enter meat products, especially ground beef, when animals are slaughtered and their meat processed. E. coli can also be spread by person-to-person contact if a sick person does not pay attention to hygiene.

Unfortunately, E. coli is not the only bacteria currently impacting the food supply. Listeria monocytogenes spreads easily and quickly, and can only be killed by heating food to high temperatures, prompting a recall on Friday of a variety of waffles made for various domestic supermarkets. This comes after large quantities of chicken products from grocery stores such as Trader Joe’s and Aldi were also subject to recalls due to Listeria monocytogenes concerns linked to prepared meat producer Blue Pack.

Both of these recalls follow an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes in boar’s head meat products, including liverwurst, made in June and July.

The outbreak occurred at the company’s facility in Jarratt, Virginia, and is present in 19 states. According to the CDC, 10 of the 59 known cases have died. Concerns about unsanitary conditions at the facility go back at least two years, including mold, pests and meat and fat residue on equipment, floors and walls.

Boar’s Head was forced to recall 71 products and 7.1 million pounds of deli meat due to the outbreak. The company has closed its Jarratt facility indefinitely and permanently halted liverwurst production.

The third contaminant of current concern, Salmonella, was the subject of an egg recall in September and a recent allium recall. It primarily comes from poultry such as chicken and eggs, but it can also be found in other types of foods. In 2024, salmonella outbreaks were linked to eggs, basil, pork, and cucumbers. Outbreaks linked to eggs and meat caused the most hospitalizations, and each spread to more than 30 states.

“If you go to the grocery store right now and buy some chicken and culture it, you’ll find salmonella,” Adalja says. “If someone doesn’t cook their food properly, it’s easy to get infected, and it can happen in your home too. If you don’t cook the chicken all the way through, or if you cut the chicken on the cutting board and then Start cutting things like lettuce, etc. There is a possibility of cross-contamination.”

Listeria monocytogenes, salmonella, and E. coli infections are of particular concern because they can disproportionately impact vulnerable groups such as pregnant women, children, and people over 65 years of age. Even healthy people who do not belong to these groups can develop symptoms after being exposed to such bacteria. , but treatment is less likely to be needed. And in many cases, it is possible to recover spontaneously even if symptoms occur.

However, as the boar head outbreak showed, these bacteria can cause more severe cases and even death. Each year, there are approximately 1,500 hospitalizations due to Listeria monocytogenes, approximately 26,500 hospitalizations due to Salmonella, and approximately 3,300 hospitalizations due to E. coli.

Listeria monocytogenes is of particular concern because it is “a much more virulent pathogen than, say, Salmonella, when it comes to infection,” Adalja said. “Transmission is very quick and may not cause the obvious signs such as vomiting or diarrhea that people think food poisoning causes. Listeria monocytogenes may not be the cause. It can manifest as a systemic infection or meningitis. There is.”

Below is an overview of the symptoms each of these bacteria can cause and who is most at risk.

The latest alert follows a steady increase in food recalls since the pandemic. The total number of food recalls and public health warnings issued by the USDA and Food and Drug Administration in 2023 was the highest in years, according to a report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy group. (However, it is still lower compared to 2018-2020.)

These recalls are primarily due to insufficient disclosure by companies about allergens found in various foods, and to a lesser extent due to the discovery of bacteria on the items. (The USDA and FDA said the number of foods they recalled in 2024 has not increased compared to 2023.)

Recent recalls are caused by several factors, including longer and more complex food supply chains. Basically, the more steps involved in food processing and packaging, the more likely it is that bacteria will spread and contaminate the item. The popularity and prevalence of processed foods, which are a major source of these pathogens, is also a problem. And better testing and detection means authorities can identify these problems more often.

“Our supply system has become so complex that there are more and more blind spots that are allowed to exist or are ignored throughout the system,” said Darin Detwiler, a food policy expert at Northeastern University, in Box told.

Government agencies are also increasingly using so-called culture-independent diagnostic tests, which are more sensitive to pathogens and can return results more quickly than previous methods. The growing use of these tests suggests that outbreaks are being caught with more regularity and may be contributing to the sense that more outbreaks are occurring.

Information technology also plays a role, Detwiler points out. The FDA is moving more digitally to track foodborne illness outbreaks, which will allow us to respond more quickly to problems.

There may be repercussions for those responsible for the outbreak, but they are often in the form of fines and are negligible for large companies. Boar’s Head is facing numerous lawsuits related to the listeria outbreak, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for inspecting food production facilities, is currently facing an internal investigation into its role.

Although the responsibility for ensuring that food is safe should fall on the companies that produce and handle the food, as well as the government agencies responsible for testing, consumers need to be more aware of the risks their food poses. Detwiler warns that you should.

“You have to assume that food is always contaminated,” he says. “As stakeholders in the process, we also need to be constantly mindful of where we buy, what we buy, what we eat, how we prepare our food, and what questions we ask. There is.”