In “The Art of War,” Sun Tzu admonishes us to know our enemy or be defeated by it.
As a society, we have failed to heed that wisdom in our fight against foodborne illness. Too often, the fight against foodborne illness is framed and fought as a conflict between consumers and industry. That must stop. Instead, consumers and industry must work in partnership. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta (CDC) estimates 48 million people get sick; 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from foodborne diseases in the U.S. each year. According to figures compiled from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) data by Food Safety News, the annual cost of foodborne illness exceeds $15.6 billion in the U.S. alone.