Guest Editorial: The Legacy of Food Safety

Editor’s note: Thirty years ago, in 1993, Dr. Detwiler’s 16-month-old son Riley died of E. coli poisoning caused by an outbreak in ground beef from the restaurant chain Jack in the Box. Following Riley’s death, Dr. Detwiler became an influential food safety advocate and champion for families impacted by foodborne illness. His work and speaking engagements over the past 30 years have brought him in front of a U.S. President and countless food safety experts and have focused on creating awareness among the general public, pushing for regulatory reform from lawmakers, and holding the food industry accountable for keeping the food we eat safe.

Fast food, third-party, ghost kitchen, and quick service are concepts that seem so ephemeral in the context of the last mile for food and for food safety; ­however, the journey that brought safety to our food today stretches back over a generation.

As we look back at 30 years of food safety culture, we should consider the legacy of these three decades as one of progress and achievement. These decades, however, were not without examples of failure and loss. The next 30 years will bring new challenges and opportunities for the industry to build upon this legacy, as it will play a key role in company reputations, their success, and in ensuring food safety for the health and well-being of all consumers.

A Herculean Effort

Having a unique perspective as a participant in and observer of the development of a “food safety culture” in the three decades since my son’s death from E. coli poisoning in 1993, I frequently speak before corporate executives not only about the true burden of foodborne disease, but also about the past and future of food safety. Highlights of my presentations are not only my family’s story, but others’ as well.

I share how, many years ago, I met with the parent of a young boy who had survived an E. coli illness when he was 4 years old. His mother shared his progress with me but was sad to talk about the difficult time he had in accepting that he couldn’t use his left arm, a result of the stroke he had while sick. She talked about how he knew that he couldn’t play like the other boys in his school.

We can, collaboratively and with the use of new technologies, muster the Herculean effort: the enormous amount of work, strength, and courage that is needed to prevent failures in food safety and to prevent consumers from being harmed and parents from living with a forever-empty chair at their family table.

But then, she pulled out a crayon-colored image for me to see. She revealed how her son had said he wished someone at the food company could have done something to prevent him from becoming sick and that, in her son’s words, “that person would have been his hero.” He did not draw someone in a fancy business suit or in a food industry smock: no hair net, no gloves. Instead, he drew a superhero flying and wearing red tights and a cape.

This story has always reminded me of the 1906 London Daily Times literary review of Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle, a book that gave the public a peek into the unsanitary conditions at meatpacking plants in Chicago. The review stated: “Unhappily we have good reason for believing it to be all fact, not fiction. The action of the President … remove all doubt and give the book very great importance … it is with nothing less than horror that we learn it to be true. The things described by Mr. Sinclair happened yesterday, are happening today, and will happen tomorrow and the next day, until some Hercules comes to cleanse the filthy stable.”