A hundred years ago, our food-safety regulators were willing to eat formaldehyde on our behalf.

What are they doing now?

This year's first major food poisoning outbreak—more than 140 people in 26 states sickened by infected sprouts—hardly made headlines:

http://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/i4512i-/021011/index.html

Of course, it was nothing special given our recent history of dangerous dining. Remember last year's recall of almost half-a-billion eggs due to bacterial contamination fears?

http://www.msnbc.com/id/38741401/ns/health-food_safety/

The tainted peanut butter fiasco of 2009, which killed nine people and sickened more than 700?

http://www.slate.com/id/2160235/

Or the 2008 food poisoning outbreak, linked to spicy peppers, which caused more than 1,300 illnesses?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con......110.html

It's as if we've become accustomed—or maybe a better word would be resigned—to living in a country where people shouldn't really trust their food. None of these were isolated incidents, after all. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now estimates that food poisoning outbreaks can be blamed for 76 million illnesses and 3,000 deaths annually.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol5no5/mead.htm