Americans playing it safer with risky foods

The number of Americans eating risky foods such as undercooked ground beef, raw fish, oysters and runny eggs dropped by a third over a four-year period, a survey has found.

The report, made public Tuesday at the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in Atlanta, found that the percentage of people eating risky foods dropped from 31% in 1998 to 21% four years later. It was based on results of telephone surveys of 15,000 to 20,000 people conducted by the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network, known as FoodNet.

The study looked at the consumption of seven foods known to be associated with E. coli, vibrio, salmonella and other food-borne illnesses: pink hamburger patties, pink ground beef, raw fresh fish, raw oysters, unpasteurized milk, runny eggs and alfalfa sprouts.

The survey found African Americans were the safest eaters, with only 15% consuming risky foods in the week before the surveys. Men ages 18 to 64 were more likely to eat risky foods than women of the same ages, by 38% to 30%. Asians and Pacific Islanders were more likely to consume risky foods than whites, by 32% to 21%.

The research was conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with the California Department of Health Services and other state health services.

The most common risky food people ate was runny eggs, the study found.