A study last year by the Center for Science in the Public Interest named the 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. Several of these won't be a surprise (eggs, anyone?), but a couple might raise an eyebrow or two.
Topping the list is leafy greens. And anyone who remembers the nationwide spinach recall of 2006, the cause of several deaths and hundreds of illnesses related to E. coli, won't be surprised by this one.
Second on the list is eggs and also, given this summer's non-stop egg recall headlines, no surprise.
Tuna ranks third on the list. Most folks worry about mercury levels in tuna -- and that remains a valid concern -- but illness-causing toxins such as scombrotoxin area also important to watch for.
Fourth on the list is oysters. Though they aren't eaten by a majority of Americans -- they're usually considered an expensive delicacy -- tainted oysters can carry Norovirus. Safe handling won't help at all if oysters are harvested from contaminated waters.
Number five is one that surprises people: potatoes. Though it isn't usually the potato itself that passes along illness, rather the ingredients in potato-based dishes, such as potato salad. Salmonella is associated with almost 30 percent of potato outbreaks.
Who doesn't love cheese? Well, the 2,761 folks in the study who fell ill after eating it, most likely. Contamination can happen in the early phases of cheese production, producing illness-inducing pathogens. Pregnant women are warned to avoid soft cheeses, which can carry Listeria.
Ice cream is number seven on the list. This cold, creamy treat can carry Salmonella and Staphylcoccus. Thousands of people were sickened in 1994 when a popular ice cream manufacturer used the same truck to transport unpasteurized and pasteurized products, which lead to the largest ice cream-outbreak in history.
Number eight is tomatoes, guilty of passing along Salmonella to hundreds nationwide in various outbreaks. Salmonella can enter tomato plant through its roots or flowers. Norovirus is another common tomato hazard.
Sprouts land at number nine on the list. Raw and lightly cooked sprouts can carry Salmonella and E. coli, and contamination likely starts with the seeds used to grow sprouts.
Rounding out the top ten riskiest foods is berries. Strawberries and raspberries, blueberries and blackberries -- they can all carry Cyclospora, which results in a parasitic illness of the intestines that must be treated by antibiotics.
Following is the entire list of the 10 riskiest foods regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, followed by the number of outbreaks and illnesses they've each been responsible for since the study began, in 1990.
1. Leafy greens: 363 outbreaks involving 13,568 reported cases of illness
2. Eggs: 352 outbreaks involving 11,163 reported cases of illness
3. Tuna: 268 outbreaks involving 2341 reported cases of illness
4. Oysters: 132 outbreaks involving 3409 reported cases of illness
5. Potatoes: 108 outbreaks involving 3659 reported cases of illness
6. Cheese: 83 outbreaks involving 2761 reported cases of illness
7. Ice cream: 74 outbreaks involving 2594 reported cases of illness
8. Tomatoes: 31 outbreaks involving 3292 reported cases of illness
9. Sprouts: 31 outbreaks involving 2022 reported cases of illness
10. Berries: 25 outbreaks involving 3397 reported cases of illness
Source: www.cspinet.org
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