Reflections on Food-Borne Filth in Relation to Human Disease

Abstract

Filth in food comes from the pests that contaminate food—insects, mites, birds and rodents. Although the presence of minute quantities of filth in food is inevitable, the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act prohibits food contamination by filth. Depending on whether the contamination occurred before or after the last heat-processing step in manufacture or preparation, the significance of filth in food ranges from merely aesthetically unappealing to allergenic, toxic, pathogenic or directly traumatic. Although the Food and Drug Act of 1906 and its subsequent revisions are ostensibly public health measures, these laws do not require the government to prove a causal relationship between filth in food and illness. Automobile accidents, for example, are a far more serious public health problem than filth in food. But food intake is a universal requirement. A classic case of human disease associated with food-borne filth occurred in Indiana in 1964.