“Food poisoning is quite common, but it is also completely avoidable.”

So says Pacific Trust Canterbury, the largest provider of Pacific health and social services in New Zealand’s South Island.

Bullshit.

According to the Ministry of Primary Industries, illness strikes about 200,000 New Zealanders every year. Nearly half of these (at least 40%) are attributed to food handling, preparation or storage in the home – that’s 80,000 people getting sick from a foodborne illness they caused, or one caused by someone they know.

More bullshit.

If a consumer ate bagged spinach in fall 2006 at home in the U.S., would that mean they possibly got sick at home, or that the contamination originated on the farm and there was little consumers could do?

Casey Jacob and I attempted to tackle this question in the journal, Foodborne Pathogens and Disease, and concluded,

 “Rather than focusing on the location of consumption—and blaming consumers and others—analysis of the steps leading to foodborne illness should center on the causes of contamination in a complex farm-to-fork food safety system.”

Supposed health care types shouldn’t spread fairytales.