Societal Cost of Foodborne Illness

A brief summation of the information provided in these source documents provides high-level insight into the impact that combating foodborne illness has within society.

Costs to Individuals/Households

• Human illness costs:
  • Medical costs
  • Physician visits
  • Laboratory costs
  • Hospitalization or nursing home
  • Drugs and other medications
  • Ambulance or other travel costs
• Income or productivity loss for:
  • Ill person or person dying
  • Caregiver for ill person
• Other illness costs:
  • Travel costs to visit ill person
  • Home modifications
  • Vocational/physical rehabilitation
  • Child care costs
  • Special educational programs
  • Institutional care
  • Lost leisure time

Psychological (psychic) Costs

• Pain and other psychological suffering
• Risk aversion

Averting Behavior Costs

• Extra cleaning/cooking time costs
• Extra cost of refrigerator, freezer, etc.
• Flavor changes from traditional recipes (especially meat, milk, egg dishes)
• Increased food cost when more expensive but safer foods are purchased
• Altruism (willingness to pay for others to avoid illness)

Industry Costs

• Costs of animal production:
  • Morbidity and mortality of animals on farms
  • Reduced growth rate/feed efficiency and increased time to market
  • Costs of disposal of contaminated animals on farm and at slaughterhouse
  • Increased trimming or reworking at slaughterhouse and processing plant
  • Illness among workers because of handling contaminated animals or products
  • Increased meat product spoilage due to pathogen contamination

Control Costs for Pathogens at All Links in the Food Chain:

• New farm practices (age-segregated housing, sterilized feed, etc.)
• Altered animal transport and marketing patterns (animal identification, feeding/watering)
• New slaughterhouse procedures (hide wash, knife sterilization, carcass sterilizing)
• New processing procedures (pathogen tests, contract purchasing requirements)

More Control Costs

• Altered product transport (increased use of time/temperature indicators)
• New wholesale/retail practices (pathogen tests, employee training, procedures)
• Risk assessment modeling by industry for all links in the food chain
• Price incentives for pathogen-reduced product at each link in the food chain

Outbreak Costs

• Herd slaughter/product recall
• Plant closings and cleanup
• Regulatory fines
• Product liability suits from consumers and other firms
• Reduced product demand because of outbreak:
• Generic animal product - all firms affected
• Reduction for specific firm at wholesale or retail level
• Increased advertising or consumer assurances following outbreak

Regulatory and Public Health Sector Costs for Foodborne Pathogens

• * Disease surveillance costs to:
• * Monitor incidence/severity of human disease by foodborne pathogens
• * Monitor pathogen incidence in the food chain
• * Develop integrated database from farm to table for foodborne pathogens

Research to:

• Identify new foodborne pathogens for acute and chronic human illnesses
• Establish high-risk products and production and consumption practices
• Identify which consumers are at high-risk for which pathogens
• Develop cheaper and faster pathogen tests
• Risk assessment modeling for all links in the food chain

Outbreak Costs:

• Costs of investigating outbreak
• Testing to contain an outbreak
  • e.g. example, serum testing & administration of immunoglobulin in persons exposed to Hepatitis A
• Costs of cleanup
• Legal suits to enforce regulations that may have been violated

Other Considerations:

• Distributional effects in different regions, industries, etc.
• Equity considerations, such as special concern for children

Source:

• Buzby, et al: Bacterial Foodborne Disease: Medical Costs and Productivity Losses
• AER-741 Economic Research Service/USDA,1996, p.8-9, updated 12/2001

Buzby, et al
USDA Economic Research Service 1996, updated 12/2001