Last week I was lucky enough to have lunch with one of our country’s strongest allies in the fight for a safer food system: Barbara Kowalcyk. Kowalcyk was in town to accept an award from the Huffington Post as the ultimate game changer in the food category for 2010. Why Kowalcyk? Because of her tireless fight to make our food safer than it was in 2001, when her 2 1/2-year-old son, Kevin, contracted a strain of E. coli 0157:H7 from a burger. After 12 excruciating days of fighting the deadly bacteria, he lost the battle and passed away due to organ failure. Losing a child is an unimaginable tragedy under any circumstance, but when your child dies as a result of his dinner, it only adds to the pain and confusion. Kowalcyk later learned that bacteria found in Kevin’s stool sample matched the one that prompted a meat recall issued 16 days after his death. How could something like this happen?

Actually, it’s quite easy. The food safety system in our country is sorely lacking in safeguards that could prevent deadly food from ending up on your plate. To honor her son and help address the loopholes that allow for unsafe food to make it to the table, Kowalcyk launched The Center for Foodborne Illness Research and Prevention (CFI) in 2006. CFI advocates for better tracking systems to quickly identify and recall contaminated food; for legislation that will improve food safety on the farm, at the plant, and in the store; and for better reporting of foodborne illness. I sat down with Kowalcyk (we both ordered a vegetarian soup and salad!) and asked her what she thinks are the most important things people can do to help the cause.

Best Life: What can people do to help make things safer?

Kowalcyk: First of all, it helps to think of food production and safety as all interconnected. It’s what’s referred to as One Health, the idea that humans, animals, the environment, we’re all part of the problem and solution, and we’re all integrated. What happens on the farm doesn’t just affect the farmer or the animal, it affects everyone along the chain. With food production becoming more global, it’s so important that we all stay committed and not view this as someone else’s problem.

Best Life: What can the average person do to support change?

Kowalcyk: Many of the food safety laws in place now were developed in 1906, at a time when food production in our country was much simpler. Today, most food is produced on factory farms by large corporations, not on family farms, so we have some catching up to do. Right now, the best shot we have at reform is with The FDA Food Safety and Modernization Act (also known as S. 510). It was passed in November 2009 by a Senate committee, but the Senate hasn’t yet voted on it. People can write their Senators in support of the bill, and we’ve made that easy for them to do on the Make Our Food Safe website—all it takes is a couple of clicks.

Best Life: What will this legislation do?

Kowalcyk: It would require the FDA to do more inspections at food processing plants, and it would take a risk-based approach, so that manufacturing plants who perform well get inspected less, and plants that don’t perform well—meaning they fail some of the tests that look for pathogens—would get inspected more often. It would also give the FDA the authority to force companies to recall potentially contaminated food.

Best Life: So right now, the FDA doesn’t have the authority to shut down plants that fail pathogen tests?

Kowalcyk: Essentially, that’s correct. The FDA is responsible for the safety of all produce, eggs and fish, and right now they couldn’t shut down a plant if they wanted to. The USDA is responsible for meat and poultry, but they don’t have much authority either. For example, the USDA tried to shut down a meat plant in 2001 that failed multiple inspections—meaning that they repeatedly found Salmonella bacteria in the company’s product—but the attempt to close them down was thwarted by the courts, which ruled the company could continue to operate. The beef company argued that Salmonella is a naturally occurring element in their meat and can be killed by cooking, so they should be allowed to stay in business. That ruling essentially stripped the USDA of any real power. Kevin’s Law, named after my son, was introduced to help restore authority to the USDA. Some of the components of Kevin’s Law have been incorporated into S. 510, but unfortunately it only applies to the FDA at this point.

Best Life: What should people be on the lookout for at the store when it comes to meat safety?

Kowalcyk: Anyone can sign up for email alerts about recalled meat and poultry by visiting the USDA website. But you can’t simply rely on recalls, which are voluntary. You also have to practice safe handling and cooking. For instance, handle meat and poultry carefully in your food cart so fluids from those items don’t contaminate other foods. And always use a meat thermometer—it’s the only reliable way to know if a food is cooked to the right temperature and all the pathogens have been killed. (To learn more about meat thermometers, click here; and for proper cooking temperatures, click here.)

Best Life: And what should you do if you think you have food poisoning?

Kowalcyk: Call your doctor if you or a family member have diarrhea, vomiting and/or bloody stool, and ask to have your stool tested for a foodborne pathogen. If it’s positive, ask your doctor to report it to the proper public health authorities. This is so important, because it’s the only way health authorities will know there’s a greater need for research and tracking. You may not be the only person sick from the same product, but without reporting it, we won’t know about a larger outbreak. Public health funding is based on these statistics, so the more actual cases are reported, the more money will be allocated to finding solutions.

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