Tainted. From Farm Gate to Dinner Plate, Fifty Years of Food Safety Failures

Salmonella in eggs. Listeria in deli meats. Melamine in milk. Cyclospora in lettuce.

In a world where irrigation water is contaminated by run-off from cattle feedlots and where food processors cut corners, the food preparation skills we learned from our parents and grandparents are no longer good enough to keep us safe.

Using a variety of foodborne disease outbreaks, often illustrated with the stories of individual victims, Tainted explores the ways in which food becomes contaminated. Some of the stories - such as the deadly 1993 Jack in the Box outbreak - will be very familiar. Others will not.

In this update to her 2007 book, "Food Safety: Old Habits, New Perspectives," Phyllis Entis draws on nearly five decades of experience to explain how our regulatory systems have failed us, and to talk about what can be done to protect consumers from unsafe food.