Study: Healthy foods are risky foods

Lettuce, tomatoes, cheese and sprouts are on the top 10 list of “riskiest foods”.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest studied 17 years of food disease outbreaks and reached the troubling conclusion that the Food and Drug Administration needs to be a more aggressive watchdog.

“The bottom line here is that we don’t want consumers to change their eating habits. We do want the government and scientists to take note,“ said Caroline Smith DeWaal, of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Also on the top-10 list of riskiest foods monitored by the FDA: Oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries.

The study does not include beef and poultry, which have come under new scrutiny, because they’re monitored by the Department of Agriculture.

The FDA’s top food safety expert says this new report underscores the need for changes his agency doesn’t have the authority to make right now.

“We’re looking to Congress to enact laws that would really empower FDA to implement the kind of preventive controls across the whole food system that we know can reduce these outbreaks significantly,“ said Michael Taylor of the FDA.

A bill to give the FDA broader powers has passed the U.S. House and is working its way through the Senate.