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Food terrorism a possibility, report warns
August 5, 1997
Web posted at: 11:15 p.m. EDT (0315 GMT)From Correspondent Eugenia Halsey
(CNN) -- Mention the word terrorism, and the image of a salad bar isn't what comes to mind.
But a new report says authorities need to be on the lookout for an unlikely kind of public threat: food terrorism.
Two recent reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association cite prior incidents in which food was deliberately contaminated.
CNN's Eugenia Halsey reports
In 1984, someone spiked restaurant salad bars in Oregon with salmonella bacteria and, last year, pastries tainted with shigella bacteria were set out for labor workers in Texas.
Now, researchers say, when food poisoning outbreaks don't fit the usual patterns, investigators should at least consider the most extreme scenario.
"I think that the possibility that the incident was intentionally started is something that everyone thinks about," Dr. Thomas Torok of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
Keeping an eye open for such attacks may help investigators, but there is little consumers can reasonably do to prevent intentional contamination. They would be better off focusing on ways to prevent accidental food poisoning.
"The consumer probably shouldn't worry that much in terms of
free-floating anxiety about terrorists. The greater risk is from natural foodborne illness or the way in which food is prepared -- cross-contamination -- in the kitchen," Glenn Morris of the University of Maryland Medical Center said.As for the prior attacks, no one died in either incident, although about 800 people were sickened in the salad bar case. A dozen people were hurt in the sabotage of the pastries, a case still under investigation.
Authorities say the salad bar illnesses were caused by members of a religious commune. They contend that followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh wanted to make people too sick to vote in an election, the outcome of which they believed critical to the commune's interests.
However rare, researchers say it's important for investigators to be aware of the possibility of food terrorism, so they can recognize it early issue an alert.
Related story:
- Food safety program to get a $43 million boost - January 24, 1997
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