Encyclopedia of food and culture. Volume 2: Food production to nuts

625 Pages·2003·22.594 MB·English

by  Solomon H. Katz (editor in chief), William Woys Weaver (associate editor)

SCRIBNER LIBRARY OF DAILY LIFE
VOLUME 2:
Food Production to Nuts
Solomon H. Katz, Editor in Chief
William Woys Weaver, Associate Editor
Encyclopedia of Food and Culture
Solomon H. Katz, Editor in Chief
William Woys Weaver, Associate Editor
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Encyclopedia of food and culture / Solomon H. Katz, editor in chief ;
William Woys Weaver, associate editor.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-684-80568-5 (set : alk. paper) — ISBN 0-684-80565-0 (v. 1) —
ISBN 0-684-80566-9 (v. 2) — ISBN 0-684-80567-7 (v. 3)
1. Food habits—Encyclopedias. 2. Food—Encyclopedias. I. Katz, Solomon H., 1939-
II. Weaver, William Woys, 1947- III. Title.
GT2850 .E53 2003
394.1’2’097303—dc21 2002014607
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
F
FOOD PRODUCTION, HISTORY OF. Ensur- to its plebeians. The annona (the distribution of free or
ing sufficient food supplies is one of the most basic chal- reduced-price grain or bread) reached impressive di-
lenges facing any human society. Organized and efficient mensions: by 350 B.C.E., an estimated 120,000 people re-
food production supports population growth and the de- ceived six half-pound loaves per day provided by 274
velopment of cities and towns, trade, and other essential public bakeries. It was one of the world’s first examples
elements of human progress. of mass production of a specific food product.
For many thousands of years, people collected their Roman agriculture was otherwise centered on the
food from the wild or hunted animals large and small. villa rustica, a type of large estate with diversified pro-
The teamwork required to bring down a mastodon may duction of grain, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and livestock.
have been the first type of collective enterprise in which After the Roman Empire collapsed, these estates became
humans engaged. The “hunter-gatherer” mode was suf- the model of the medieval fief, the property held by a
ficient for small groups in favorable environments, but as lord and worked by serfs who were legally bound to the
population grew and people pushed into areas less en- land. The serfs had to work the lord’s land but also had
dowed with easily obtainable food, they sought more re- the right to work strips of their own, plus small kitchen
liable sources of nutrition. gardens. In the early feudal period, peasant families could
Scientists believe that agriculture was established gather game in the forests, but eventually these were re-
first in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East about ten served to the aristocracy and the peasants got by on lit-
or eleven thousand years B.C.E.The region was home to tle more than bread and gruel.
a variety of edible and easily cultivated crops: wheat and Technology, as simple as it was in the Middle Ages,
barley among the cereal crops, and lentils, peas, and played a role in increasing food production. The devel-
chickpeas among the vegetables. Also, the region was en- opment of a heavy plow capable of breaking the dense,
dowed with wild goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle, all of which
were domesticated and became important sources of
food. Cattle are also useful work animals, and all these
animals produce manure for fertilizer. Thus, a complete
agricultural package was available, and it helped give rise
to the civilizations in the Middle East. The need for com-
mon facilities to thresh and store grain was a major im-
petus for settlements; the wall of Jericho dates from
around 8000 B.C.E. and was presumably built to protect
its food supply.
Agriculture developed independently in the part of
Mexico and Central America known as Mesoamerica; in
the Andean highlands of Peru; in the American Midwest;
in north and south China; and in Africa. But the Fertile
Crescent had a long head start and the most favorable
combination of plants and animals, and this eventually
translated into a significant cultural advantage for Europe.
In the ancient world, the Mediterranean Sea was
crisscrossed with ships carrying spices from the Middle
East and ultimately India, wine and olive oil from Greece,
Professional trade journals from the past provide rich source
and grain from Egypt. The city of Rome came to depend
on wheat from Egypt and North Africa to supply the material for the history of food production. ROUGHWOOD
COLLECTION.
grain (and, later, bread) that was distributed free of charge
1
FOOD PRODUCTION, HISTORY OF
interest in breaking the Arab hold on the spice trade led
to the voyages of discovery of Vasco da Gama and
Columbus.
Discovery of the New World touched off the great-
est and most rapid spread of new crops the world had
seen. The Americas contributed maize (corn), potatoes,
tomatoes, and peppers to Europe, while the Europeans
brought wheat and other staple crops, and sugarcane,
which was very successful in Brazil and later the Caribbean
region. Sugarcane cultivation created a demand for labor
that was met by the African slave trade. The “Columbian
Exchange” thus laid the basis for much of the subsequent
economic and political history of the New World.
In the Old World, the decline of feudalism and the
rise of cities and towns helped move agriculture from sub-
sistence to a market orientation. Land that had been held
in common and used mainly for grazing was consolidated
under the control of individual landowners, which greatly
increased production of both crops and animals. The
draining of marshy land, especially in England and the
Low Countries, was accelerated. All these trends sup-
This Australian photograph from the early 1890s records an
old method of hand grading and packing apples. © BETTMANN/ ported the more intensive cultivation of the available land
CORBIS. and the production of more and cheaper food for grow-
ing and more urban populations. By 1700, European agri-
culture could provide approximately two-and-a-half
wet soils of northern Europe reached Germany by the times the yield per input of seed that had been normal
eighth century, and opened up a major new grain source in the Middle Ages (Roberts, 1997).
for the rest of the continent. Grist mills powered by wind
Science and technology played an increasingly im-
or water popped up all over Europe beginning in the
portant role in food production in the eighteenth and
eleventh century, providing large-scale processing of
nineteenth centuries. The development of mineral and
grain into flour.
then chemical fertilizers freed farmers from reliance on
Medieval European crop farmers had few options for manure and fallows as ways of renewing the soil. New
increasing production. The usual practice was to rotate equipment, such the mechanical seed drill, made for more
fields between grain and pasture so that they would be efficient planting. The mechanization of agriculture ad-
refreshed by animal manure between crops, a practice vanced rapidly in the nineteenth century with mechani-
called “fallows.” In the later Middle Ages, the revitaliz- cal reapers, the tractor, and electric milking machines,
ing power of legumes, which supply nitrogen to the soil, among other innovations. Scientists also developed a bet-
a technique lost since Roman times, was rediscovered. ter understanding of the nutritional components of food,
Rotating fields through grain, legumes, and fallows which led to an emphasis on a balanced diet and, by the
boosted productivity by at least a third and added peas, twentieth century, resulted in the improvement of food
beans, chickpeas, lentils, and other vegetables to the Eu- with the addition of vitamins and minerals to products
ropean diet. such as bread and breakfast food.
China, often thought of as a land of rice, also de-
Preserving food for later consumption has always
pended heavily on millet, wheat, and soybeans. Rice pro-
been a challenge, especially in countries with long win-
duction increased significantly in the eleventh century
ters when little fresh food was available. Grain kept well
when new strains were imported from Southeast Asia.
if kept dry, but meat and fish had to be salted, and a mo-
Chinese fishermen also gathered fish from the ocean,
notonous diet of bread, dried peas, and salted fish sus-
lakes, and rivers, and sold them in vast central markets,
tained many Europeans through the winter until the early
which supplied networks of cookshops, restaurants, ban-
modern period. The preservation of food by heating it
queting halls, and other eating places.
and sealing it in jars or cans began in the early nineteenth
The Arab world also had a varied and sophisticated century, followed by pasteurization of wine and later milk
system of food production, with water-powered mills to kill spoilage organisms. (The great chemist Louis Pas-
grinding grain full-time in North Africa and fishermen teur developed the process that bears his name to save
packing Mediterranean tuna in salt. The Arabs intro- the French wine industry, not its dairy farmers.) Canning
duced citrus, rice, and sugarcane to Europe and con- and pasteurization made a wider variety of foods avail-
trolled the lucrative spice trade with India. European able to urban populations
2
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD RIOTS
With the development of steamships and refrigera- Global Food Market; Food Supply, Food Shortages;
tion in the nineteenth century, the international food Green Revolution; High-Technology Farming; Hor-
trade was transformed. Beef could be shipped from Ar- ticulture; Packaging and Canning; Pasteur, Louis.
gentina to England and bananas from Central America
to New York. Worldwide food exports went from 4 mil- BIBLIOGRAPHY
lion tons in the 1850s to 18 million tons thirty years later Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human So-
and 40 million tons by 1914 (Ponting, 1992). Chicago cieties. New York: Norton, 1997.
became the center of the U.S. meatpacking industry when Flandrin, Jean-Louis, and Massimo Montanari, eds. Food: A
refrigerated rail cars allowed packers to ship butchered Culinary History. New York: Penguin, 2000.
meat virtually nationwide. Ponting, Clive. A Green History of the World: The Environment
and the Collapse of Great Civilizations. New York: St. Mar-
Agriculture, fisheries, and livestock and poultry pro-
tin’s, 1992.
duction are now so efficient in Europe, North America,
Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, and other advanced Riera-Melis, Antoni. “Society, Food and Feudalism,” in Food: A
Culinary History, Jean-Louis Flandrin, and Massimo Mon-
countries that production can easily overwhelm demand,
tanari, eds. New York: Penguin Books, 2000.
resulting in low prices and financial losses for producers.
Governments all over the world subsidize their farmers Roberts, J. M. A History of Europe.New York: Allen Lane/ Pen-
guin, 1997.
and attempt to protect them from foreign competition,
which keeps farmers in business but raises the cost of food Solbrig, Otto T., and Dorothy J. Solbrig. So Shall You Reap:
to consumers. In the United States, for example, sugar Farming and Crops in Human Affairs. Washington, D.C.:
Island Press, 1994.
costs twice what it does on the world market because of
the protection of domestic producers. Tannahill, Reay. Food in History. New York: Three Rivers Press,
1989.
Some of the benefits of Western agriculture and food
Thomas, Hugh. World History: The Story of Mankind from Pre-
production have been modified and transferred to the de-
history to the Present. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.
veloping world. The use of high-yield wheat and rice,
along with large doses of fertilizer—the so-called “Green Richard L. Lobb
Revolution”—has transformed the food picture in many
countries. Wheat production in India nearly tripled from
1965 to 1980 while rice production increased 60 percent
with the new strains and new methods. During the 1970s FOOD RIOTS. A food riot can be defined as any
alone, rice production rose 37 percent in Indonesia and gathering, whether planned or spontaneous, that may be-
40 percent in the Philippines. gin peacefully (a “food protest”) but evolves into disor-
der, leading to loss of control, violence, bodily harm, or
Food today is often highly processed before being
damage to property. “Food riot” and “food protest” can
sold to consumers. Conversely, “pure,” “organic,” “all-
be understood and discussed together as “food distur-
natural” foods are becoming more popular. While
bances” (Gilje, p. 4). Food disturbances occur and have
dwarfed by the mainstream food industry, organic pro-
occurred for obvious reasons: When people feel their
duction can be profitable and viable. Governments seek
sense of entitlement to an adequate supply of food is be-
to encourage this type of production, with strict regula-
ing breached by those controlling the food supply, they
tions (effective 2003) on what can be labeled “organic”
will go to extreme measures to get the kind, quantity, and
in the United States and programs such as “Label Rouge”
quality of food they feel they need for themselves and
(“red label”), which recognizes organic-style production,
their families.
in France.
Historical and archaeological evidence documents
With rapid advances in biotechnology, genetic ma-
the existence of food riots for several thousands of years
nipulation of crops accelerated in the 1990s and is ex-
and in all parts of the world, with periods of greater and
pected to have a significant impact on food production.
lesser activity (Newman). Food riots occurred most fre-
Maize, for example, is bioengineered to resist insect pests,
quently in the modern era (sixteenth through eighteenth
and soybeans are modified to shrug off a common her-
centuries), declined through the nineteenth and twenti-
bicide that keeps the fields free of weeds. These traits are
eth centuries, and increased again toward the end of the
advantageous to producers but not directly beneficial to
twentieth century, primarily in developing countries.
consumers. The next level of genetic modification will be
to insert traits actually beneficial to humans into food
Types of Food Riots
plants, such as rice fortified with extra vitamins that ward
Since it is such a strong component and shaper of iden-
off blindness. Genetic modification of food plants is con-
tity, food is deeply enmeshed in a collective as well as an
troversial and closely regulated by government but is felt
individual sense of identity. How and why foods accrue
by many to be the next frontier in food production.
special meaning—what makes them unique to particular
See alsoAgriculture, Origins of; Agriculture since the In- groups of people—can vary widely: method of prepara-
dustrial Revolution; Agronomy; Food Supply and the tion, long-held tradition, particular “flavor principles,”
3
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD RIOTS
lently attack those choosing to purchase a targeted item
or frequent a targeted store.
Theories of Food Rioting
Why do people riot over food? The obvious answer, that
they riot because they are hungry, does not begin to an-
swer the question since most who are poor and hungry
do not riot. What intervening variables determine who
eventually riots over which foods? Historians have ana-
lyzed and explained food riots in a variety of ways, in-
cluding as collective action representing the “moral
economy” of an era, as part of a so-called “female con-
sciousness,” and as an exhibition of nationalism/patrio-
tism. In his 1971 article, “The Moral Economy of the
A political power struggle in Haiti resulted in massive food English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” eminent
riots and looting in Port-au-Prince in 1994. © PETER TURNLEY/ British historian E. P. Thompson sets about to provide
CORBIS. a “thick description” of food rioters’ motives in prein-
dustrial England, an era when subsistence riots happened
with great frequency. Thompson argues that English
peasant bread riots were symptomatic of a society caught
perception of purity, religious, cultural, or political sig-
between changing economic and political forces, of an
nificance, signification of wealth or status, or any com-
England in the midst of moving from a looser collection
bination of factors. The restriction in availability of foods
of landed gentry to a stronger state, and from a mercan-
imbued with distinctive meaning, then, whether through
tilist, feudal economic system to one of laissez-faire mar-
government manipulation or the vicissitudes of a “free
ket capitalism. Peasants under the feudal system were
market” economy, can function as a catalyst for collec-
used to bread sold at “just prices”—an amount reduced
tive protest. This is true not only in relatively isolated
for the poor as part of the communal moral ethos. In the
communities in the past, but in the ever-changing global
shift to an emerging market economy that abandoned the
villages of the twenty-first century.
notion of the just price, peasants understandably clung to
A major subfield in social history, a rich body of the older “moral economy.” Viewing inexpensive bread
scholarly work both documents and theorizes about food prices as an entitlement, when peasants felt the long-held
disturbances. European social historians especially have social pact was not being honored under the new system,
set the standard for scholarship in the field. While no they rioted in response. People, argues Thompson, were
two riots are ever exactly the same, and each contains a thus not just rioting because they were hungry, but also
multiplicity of circumstances, historians have generalized out of a sense of injustice. As the peasantry evolved into
that in the past food riots have fallen into three main cat- the industrialized working class, conflicts over food were
egories: First, a blockage or entrave, where protesters absorbed into and displaced by organized labor strikes.
blocked shipments of grain or other foodstuffs shipped This explains why the number of food riots diminished
from one region to another; second, the price riot or tax- considerably in the nineteenth century and beyond.
ation populaire, where peasants seized the goods from a Scholars have taken issue with Thompson’s moral econ-
retail shop whose prices were deemed too high, which omy theory, but few if any reject his theory outright.
would then be sold for a “just price,” and often the money
Since women as well as men participated in food ri-
paid to the merchant. The final form of food riots, the
ots, often in unique ways, in recent years historians have
market riot, was simply looting stores and supply depots
employed gender as a category of analysis. While not
to protest high prices or the lack of goods (Thompson;
disagreeing with the moral economists, historians such
Gilje; Walton and Seddon).
as Temma Kaplan point out that, although the number
Modern-day riots tend to conform to the latter cat- of food riots decreased in the nineteenth century, food
egory of market riots, as looting and destroying property disturbances nevertheless continued. Moreover, they ar-
are common factors. In addition are the more calculated, gue, food rioting took on a noticeably female persona,
less volatile, demonstrations where the food at issue is in part because labor unions, the new locus of collective
ceremoniously dumped on the grounds of, for example, action, largely excluded women. Studying early-twenti-
the local government headquarters. The boycotting eth-century food riots in Barcelona, Kaplan argues that
of food, also a common means of protest in the twenti- women participated in food riots as an extension of their
eth century, can be effective, especially when centered on role in the sexual division of labor: caring for home and
one item such as milk, beer, bread, or grapes, or on a sin- family, which included food procurement and prepara-
gle manufacturer (Linden). Boycotts, however, can evolve tion. Women who accepted the traditional division of
into full-fledged food riots if participants harass or vio- labor, argues Kaplan, could be radicalized to action in
4
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD SAFETY
the public sphere if they were prevented from fulfilling BIBLIOGRAPHY
their obligation, especially the feeding and care of their Breen, T.H. “Baubles of Britain: The American and Consumer
Revolutions of the Eighteenth Century.” Past and Present
families.
119 (1988): 73–104.
Food riots can also be examined in light of cultural
Gilje, Paul A. Rioting in America. Bloomington: Indiana Uni-
meanings of consumption and their connection to na-
versity Press, 1996.
tionalism. Historian Timothy Breen explores the relation
Kaplan, Temma. “Female Consciousness and Collective Action:
between the growth of national consciousness and the
The Case of Barcelona, 1910–1918.” Signs 7 (1982):
American colonial rejection of British manufactured
545–566.
goods, including foodstuffs. Manufactured goods im-
Linden, Marcel van der. “Working-Class Consumer Power.”
ported from Britain, readily available to so many people,
International Labor and Working-Class History 46 (1994):
Breen argues, resulted in a standardization of taste that
109–121.
transcended (to some extent) class boundaries. Consumer
Newman, Lucile F., Alan Boegehold, David Herlihy, Robert W.
goods became politicized in the decades leading up to the
Kates, and Kurt Raaflaub. “Agricultural Intensification,
American Revolution, providing a “shared language of
Urbanization, and Hierarchy.” Hunger in History: Food
consumption” that colonists of all regions and classes
Shortage, Poverty, and Deprivation, edited by L. Newman et
could understand and identify with, hence providing a
al. Oxford, England, and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell,
common experience and knowledge base that united 1990.
them enough to wage war against the mother country.
Thompson, E.P. “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd
While Breen does not limit his analysis to food but ex-
in the Eighteenth Century.” Past and Present 50 (1971):
plores the meaning of consumer goods of all kinds, he 76–136.
focuses on the struggle over tea and its culminating food
Walton, John, and David Seddon. Free Markets and Food Riots:
protest, the Boston Tea Party.
The Politics of Global Adjustment. Oxford, England, and
Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994.
Modern-Day Food Rioting
Amy Bentley
While food riots and protests have occurred in the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries, the recent wave of food
riots and protests are directly tied to strict economic aus-
terity plans forced on developing countries by the Inter- FOOD SAFETY. Food safety is a matter that affects
national Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international anyone who eats food. Whether or not a person con-
banks. Governments attempting to repay bank loans must sciously thinks about food safety before eating a meal, a
enact draconian measures, including abandoning the long host of other people have thought about the safety of that
tradition of subsidizing staple foods such as bread, rice, food, from farmers to scientists to company presidents to
and cooking oil. The resulting high prices, deflated federal government officials and public health officials.
wages, scarce resources, shrinking food supplies, and Ensuring the safety of food is a shared responsibility
empty bellies has led to a series of food riots, including among producers, industry, government, and consumers.
the looting and pillaging of stores, fast-food restaurants, Safe food is food that is free not only from toxins, pesti-
and supply depots, the blockading of farm and supply cides, and chemical and physical contaminants, but also
trucks, and protests in town squares that have erupted from microbiological pathogens such as bacteria, para-
into mayhem and violence. Often the protests and riots sites, and viruses that can cause illness.
have centered on one food item, usually a staple or key
Those working in the field of food safety are most
ingredient (often with a tradition of subsidization by the
concerned about microbial foodborne illness, a wide-
government) integral to the culture’s cuisine and con-
spread but often unrecognized sickness that affects most
sumed by rich and poor alike: rice, tortillas, onions, bread.
people at one time or another. At least four factors are
The item, so central to their food habits, has functioned
necessary for foodborne illness to occur: (1) a pathogen;
as a symbol of people’s intense frustration and anger at
(2) a food vehicle; (3) conditions that allow the pathogen
being trapped in a global economic web in which they
to survive, reproduce, or produce a toxin; and (4) a sus-
seem to have no agency. Social scientists John Walton
ceptible person who ingests enough of the pathogen or
and David Seddon note similarities between these recent
its toxin to cause illness. The symptoms often are simi-
austerity riots and those of the preindustrial European
lar to those associated with the flu—nausea, vomiting, di-
peasantry. Each era of food rioting, they argue, includes
arrhea, abdominal pain, fever, headache. Most people
a context of burgeoning urban metropolises, severe eco-
have experienced foodborne illness, even though they
nomic hardship, and populations with a strong sense of
might not recognize it as such, instead blaming it on the
moral economy that regards subsidized food prices as a
stomach flu or a twenty-four-hour bug. Usually symp-
government obligation.
toms disappear within a few days, but in some cases there
See alsoConsumer Protests; Food as a Weapon of War; can be more long-lasting effects such as joint inflamma-
Food Supply, Food Shortages; Hunger, Physiology tion or kidney failure. In the most severe cases people die
of; Hunger Strikes; Malnutrition; Political Economy. from foodborne illness.
5
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD SAFETY
Current estimates of foodborne illness in the United While anybody can get sick from eating contami-
States are 76 million cases, 325,000 hospitalizations, and nated food, the severity of the illness depends on a num-
5,194 deaths from foodborne pathogens per year. In cases ber of factors. Most important among these are age,
when the pathogen is identified, bacteria cause 30 per- amount of contamination consumed, and health status of
cent of foodborne illnesses, parasites 3 percent, and the individual. The body has a number of defenses to
viruses 67 percent. But as far as deaths are concerned, protect itself against harmful bacteria. The acidic gastric
bacterial pathogens are the leading cause of death, with juices of the stomach are one of the first defenses against
72 percent of total foodborne illness deaths attributable foodborne pathogens, as many bacteria cannot survive in
to bacteria. Fatality rates for two bacteria are particularly an acidic environment. Very young infants and aging
high; for Listeria 20 percent of the people may die, and adults produce fewer, or less acidic, gastric juices than
for Vibrio vulnificus 39 percent. Just six pathogens account younger, healthy adults. The normal bacteria present in
for over 90 percent of the deaths associated with food- the gastrointestinal system form another protective bar-
borne illness: Salmonella (31 percent), Listeria (28 per- rier against foodborne illness by preventing harmful bac-
cent), Toxoplasma (21 percent), Norwalk-like viruses (7 teria from colonizing the gut. Use of antibiotics, which
percent), Campylobacter(5 percent), and Escherichiacoli (3 destroy the protective bacteria normally present in the
percent). According to FoodNet data from 1996–1997, gastrointestinal tract as well as their target bacteria, make
each person in the United States suffers 1.4 episodes of it easier for pathogenic bacteria to invade and cause ill-
diarrhea per year. With a U.S. population of 267.7 mil- ness. Finally, the human immune system, not fully de-
lion persons, that works out to 375 million episodes per veloped at birth, gradually reaches maturity in puberty
year, many of them related to eating unsafe food. Fac- and then slowly begins to decline after about fifty years
tors that contributed the most to foodborne illness are of age.
improper holding temperatures, inadequate cooking,
contaminated equipment, food from unsafe sources, and
Consumer Lifestyles and Demand
poor personal hygiene.
As the pace of life quickens, we often eat meals on the
run, and spend less time on food preparation, preferring
Factors Influencing the Safety of Food
instead restaurants, convenience foods, or already pre-
Stories of foodborne illness have become much more preva-
pared meals. This means that by the time you eat your
lent throughout the world. Is food less safe than it used to
food, it may have been transported, cooked, cooled,
be, and if so, what factors account for this? News travels
stored, transported again, reheated, and touched by nu-
fast these days, both electronically and through the news
merous individuals. Each processing step introduces new
media. What were once isolated events and stories, now
hazards that could allow for the survival and growth of
reach millions within hours. Diagnostic techniques are con-
pathogens. In the United States, two out of three people
stantly improving, allowing for identification of diseases,
ate their main meal away from home at least once a week
foodborne and otherwise, that would have been of un-
in 1998. The typical consumer over eight years of age ate
known origin in the past. But even considering these facts,
food away from home at least four times per week
public-health officials believe that the risk of foodborne ill-
(Collins, 1997). Americans spend fifty cents of every food
ness has increased over the past twenty years (GAO, 1996).
dollar on food prepared outside the home—from super-
Some threats to food safety have been around since ancient
markets, restaurants, or institutions.
times, while others are newer, the result of changing de-
mographics and lifestyles, production practices, and even Add to this the mishandling of food that occurs af-
evolution of microorganisms themselves. ter a consumer purchases food and takes it home, and the
likelihood of illness increases. Approximately 20 percent
Demographics of reported foodborne illness cases occur from food
The proportion of the population at serious risk of food- cooked at home. Experts believe that this number is ac-
borne illness is increasing as the population ages and the tually much higher, but that most people do not report
number of people with weakened immune systems grows. cases of illness caused by foods cooked at home (Knabel,
People who are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill 1995; Doyle, 2000). As people cook less, they pass on less
include infants, young children, the elderly, pregnant knowledge of cooking to their children, who are never-
women, those taking certain medications, and those with theless increasingly responsible for preparing meals. This
diseases such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome has grave implications for the future of food safety. In a
(AIDS), cancer, and diabetes that weaken their immune survey of consumer food safety knowledge and practices,
systems. Demographers predict that the proportion of 86 percent of respondents knew that they should wash
people over sixty years old in industrialized countries such their hands before preparing food, but only 66 percent
as the United States will rise from the current 17 percent reported actually doing so. Only 67 percent of respon-
of the population to 25 percent by 2025 (Kaferstein, dents reported washing or changing cutting boards after
1999). In one survey, 89 percent of deaths with diarrhea cutting raw meat or poultry. Older adults practiced safe
as an underlying cause were adults fifty-five and over or behaviors more often than did younger adults (Altekruse,
children under the age of five (Morris, 1997). 1995). In an Australian study in which researchers asked
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD SAFETY
people about their food safety and kitchen habits, and but shipped around the country (Hennessy, 1996). Re-
then filmed them preparing food, there were large dif- calls from processing plants are on a larger and larger
ferences in what people said they did and what they ac- scale. In 1998 Sara Lee recalled 35 million pounds of hot
tually did. Almost half the people who said they washed dogs and lunch meat due to the presence of Listeria.This
their hands after handling raw meat did not, and when is food contamination on a scale unprecedented a gener-
they did it was often without soap. Nineteen percent of ation ago.
the households that claimed to have soap in the kitchen
Even the manner in which farmers raise animals can
did not (Jay, 1999).
contribute to an increase in food safety problems. A large
Consumers are increasingly demanding fresh and number of animals are often crowded together, increas-
natural products, prepared with fewer preservatives. ing their stress levels and weakening their immune sys-
Without the traditional preservatives and processing tems. This crowding also facilitates the spread of disease
methods that prevent microbial growth, modern all-nat- from one animal to another. In the old days a sick ani-
ural and fresh products are more perishable. Food pro- mal would be fairly isolated and if it became sick it would
cessing, mainly canning, freezing, and pasteurizing, not not pass on illness to the rest of the flock or herd. But
only extends the shelf-life of foods, but also inhibits bac- with closer animal-to-animal contact, disease can quickly
terial growth, making food safer. As an example, fresh spread throughout the whole group.
apple cider has been associated with several foodborne
disease outbreaks. An outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:
New and Evolving Pathogens
H7 in which a child died was associated with raw unpas-
As recently as fifty years ago scientists had identified four
teurized apple juice from a company that built its repu-
foodborne pathogens. Today five times that number are
tation on the naturalness of its products.
on the list. Twenty years ago scientists did not even rec-
As the role of fresh fruits and vegetables in a nutri- ognize three of the four pathogens that the Centers for
tious diet has become evident, people are including them Disease Control considers the most important in causing
in their diet more. In 1993 Americans ate 27 percent foodborne illness—Campylobacter jejuni, Listeria monocy-
more fresh produce than they did in 1973. An increase togenes, and E. coli O157:H7. C. cayetanensis first appeared
in the number of foodborne illness outbreaks associated in 1979 and is still not well understood. It is likely that
with fresh produce has accompanied this increase in con- scientists will discover new foodborne pathogens as lab-
sumption. In the last twenty years of the twentieth cen- oratory techniques improve.
tury, the number of identifiable outbreaks in which
As living organisms, pathogens are constantly evolv-
produce was the food vehicle doubled (Tauxe et al.,
ing. With better ability to trace outbreaks, scientists are
1997). Most produce only grows in the United States in
discovering that some bacteria survive in environments
certain seasons, yet this seasonal availability has almost
previously thought safe. For example, E. coli O157:H7,
disappeared from our supermarkets as consumers de-
originally called “hamburger disease” because of its pres-
mand year-round availability of produce. From 1996 to
ence in undercooked ground beef, has shown up in foods
1998 Cyclospora cayetanensis sickened more than 2,400
as diverse as salami, apple cider, raw milk, and lettuce. It
people throughout twenty states and Canada. The only
also survives in lower pH conditions than originally
common food vehicle among these individuals was rasp-
thought, leading to the outbreaks in acidic foods such as
berries imported from Guatemala. Smaller outbreaks of
salami and apple cider. It is now known that Yersinia en-
Cyclospora have been traced to basil and mesclun lettuce
terocolitica and L. monocytogenes can survive and multiply
grown in the United States.
at refrigeration temperatures.
Some foods long considered safe have recently been
Food Production and Economics
implicated in foodborne outbreaks. For years scientists
In the past, outbreaks of foodborne illness were relatively
believed the inside of an egg was sterile and that Salmo-
small and local. Illness could be traced back to local events
nella enteritidis was not of concern. Now however, they
such as weddings, church dinners, and other gatherings
know that chickens infected with Salmonellapass this in-
where a large number of people ate the same food. To-
fection along in their eggs, so that the bacteria can be
day’s food is produced in vastly different ways from those
found inside the raw egg, making it unsafe to eat raw or
of even several decades ago. Food used to be grown, pro-
undercooked eggs. This was not known until 1989.
duced, and distributed on a local basis. Food production
Knowledge of this fact caused food safety experts to ad-
is now centralized and on a larger scale than in the past.
vise people to cook eggs thoroughly or to use liquid pas-
Products made in a single processing plant in mass quan-
teurized eggs.
tities are shipped all over the country, sometimes
throughout the world. A mistake made in the processing Bacteria have long been capable of evolving to thwart
will be felt nationwide instead of just locally. In 1994 an attempts to eliminate them. Some pathogens are now be-
estimated 224,000 people throughout the nation became coming resistant to common antimicrobial agents. It is
ill from Salmonella enteritidis after eating ice cream pro- thought that the resistance may be related to the sub-
duced at one ice cream processing facility in Minnesota, therapeutic use of these antibiotics in animals. We are
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE
FOOD SAFETY
seeing this same adaptability in foodborne bacteria. Sal- Louis Pasteur further elucidated the link between
monella typhimurium DT104 is widely distributed in wild spoilage, disease, and microorganisms with his work on
and farm animals, especially in Europe, and is resistant fermentation and pasteurization in the 1860s and 1870s.
to several common antibiotics. There has been a parallel In 1872 German scientist Ferdinand Julius Cohn pub-
increase with people getting sick from this type of drug- lished a three-volume treatise on bacteria, essentially
resistant Salmonella. founding the science of bacteriology. But this new field
of bacteriology needed bacteria on which to conduct ex-
History of Food Safety periments and study. It took Robert Koch in the 1880s
Very little about foodborne illness or food safety is found to perfect the process of growing pure strains of bacte-
in historical records. Scientists did not begin to under- ria in the laboratory. At first he used flat glass slides to
stand bacteria, and their relationship to disease, until the grow the bacteria. His assistant, Julius Richard Petri, sug-
late nineteenth century. People did recognize that food gested using shallow glass dishes with covers, now com-
spoils, but the reasons for that and the potential for be- monly called Petri dishes. Koch also established strict
coming ill from food were not known. The history of criteria for showing that a specific microbe causes a spe-
food safety is really the history of the numerous discov- cific disease. These are now known as Koch’s Postulates.
eries, inventions, and regulations that all led to the pre- Using these criteria scientists can identify bacteria that
sent knowledge. cause a number of diseases, including foodborne diseases.
In 1947 Joshua Lederberg and Edward Lawrie Tatum
Food preservation methods such as drying, smoking,
discovered that bacteria reproduce sexually, opening up
freezing, marinating, salting, and pickling have their be-
a whole new field of bacterial genetics (Asimov, 1972).
ginnings thousands of years ago. Whether these meth-
ods were employed solely to keep food for later use, to Even though Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch bi-
improve flavor, or for other reasons is not known; but for ologist and microscopist, had improved the microscope
whatever reason they were developed, they also had the to the degree that small microscopic organisms could be
effect of keeping food safer. Even cooking can be viewed seen as far back as 1673, the discovery of foodborne dis-
as an ancient method of making food safer. The Chinese ease causing microorganisms developed slowly. Although
Confucian Analects of 500 B.C.E. warned against con- James Paget and Richard Owen described the parasite
sumption of sour rice, spoiled fish or flesh, food kept too Trichinella spiralis for the first time in 1835, and German
long, or insufficiently cooked food. The Chinese disliked pathologists Friedrich Albert von Zenker and Rudolph
eating uncooked food, believing that anything boiled or Virchow noted the clinical symptoms of trichinosis in
cooked cannot be poisonous. It is possible that the prac- 1860, the association between trichinosis and the para-
tice of drinking tea originated because tea required us- site Trichinella spiralis was not realized until much later.
ing hot water, which would make it safer than using The English scientist William Taylor showed in 1857
unheated contaminated water (Trager, 1995). Doubtless that milk can transmit typhoid fever. In 1885, United
other cultures in antiquity, while oblivious to the causes States Department of Agriculture (USDA) veterinarian
or prevention of foodborne disease, experienced it and Daniel Salmon described a microorganism that caused
prescribed methods to avoid it. gastroenteritis with fever when ingested in contaminated
Much of the present knowledge about pathogens and food. The bacteria was eventually named Salmonella (Asi-
foodborne illness is built on a foundation of scientific dis- mov, 1972). August Gärtner, a German scientist, was the
coveries spanning back over three centuries. Italians first to isolate Bacillus enteritidis from a patient with food
Francisco Redi and Lazzaro Spallanzani performed ex- poisoning, in 1888. The case was the result of a cow with
periments that dispelled the theory of spontaneous gen- diarrhea slaughtered for meat; fifty-seven people who ate
eration of organisms. The discovery of bacteria in the late the meat become ill (Satin, 1999). Emilie Pierre-Mare
nineteenth century, the increased understanding of bac- van Ermengem, a Belgian bacteriologist, was the first to
teria’s role in disease, and the realization that there is a isolate the bacteria that causes botulism, Clostridium bot-
connection between human diseases and animal diseases ulinum, in 1895. The case concerned an uncooked, salted
led to the ideas that cleanliness is important and that un- ham served at a wake in Belgium. Twenty-three people
sanitary conditions can contribute to disease. A leader in became ill, and three died. In a perhaps overzealous use
this effort was Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweiss, of the scientific method, M. A. Barber demonstrated that
who in 1847 required hospital doctors to wash their hands Staphylococcus aureus causes food poisoning. After each of
before delivering babies. As a result, maternal death rates three visits to a particular farm in the Philippines in 1914,
plummeted from 10 to 1.5 percent. His colleagues he became ill. Suspecting cream from a cow with an ud-
greeted his theory that doctors were carrying disease der infection, Barber took home two bottles of cream, let
from person to person with ridicule. Instead they attrib- them sit out for five hours, drank some of the cream, and
uted maternal deaths to a phenomenon arising from the became ill two hours later with the same symptoms as on
combustible nature of pregnant women. Lack of personal the farm. He isolated a bacterium from the milk, placed
hygiene remains one of the main causes of foodborne ill- it in a germ-free container of milk, waited awhile, and
ness 150 years later. then convinced two hapless volunteers to drink the milk
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FOOD AND CULTURE