Marshfield Clinic's new Food Safety Services Department has the potential to help improve food safety every step along the food chain ­ from farm to kitchen table.

"Marshfield Clinic has the infrastructure for this work with its human and veterinary laboratories," according to Jay L.E. Ellingson, Ph.D., director of Marshfield Clinic Food Safety Services and a former molecular microbiologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. "We are able to study issues that cross between animals and humans."

One indication of the importance of the food safety issue is that President Bill Clinton made it a priority for his final months in office. More government regulations for food are expected in the coming months and years.

Why such an emphasis? The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia, estimates foodborne diseases cause 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year in this country.

"That's 5,000 too many deaths," Ellingson said. "Food safety is a public health issue."

Although he said the United States has one of the best food safety programs in the world, the food chain is only as safe as its weakest link. One individual in the egg industry, for example, who does not follow proper sanitary procedures could contaminate product that "doesn't just reach one family, but potentially hundreds or thousands of families."

It's not just processors and manufacturers who must take precautions with food safety, however.

"We all need to be more conscious of the way we handle food, even as consumers," he said. "Proper sanitation techniques, such as hand washing, need to be done every step of the way in the food chain. Sometimes it's as simple as that. If we would all slow down and do things correctly, we would not have as big a problem."