I was perusing the Bad Bug Book while doing some research on the recent Blue Bell outbreak and came across a hyperlink. After hearing “do you want to know more?” in my head, I clicked through on some non-L. mono species of Listeria and was…confused. I quickly doubled back, thinking that maybe I had been redirected, but there it was.

FDA describes the reference as “current information about the major known agents that cause foodborne illness.” Descriptions also include a statement that it should not be used as a comprehensive or clinical reference. However, this isn’t an excuse for making a consumer and industry reference link to a completely uncontrolled document source. The Bad Bug Book (2nd ed.) is a wonderfully written resource, both for a lay and industry audience; but the fact that the authors of the Listeria page referred to Wikipedia as an ongoing resource, without knowing or being able to control the content presented to consumers, is irresponsible. A nefarious Wikipedia troll could at any moment have an article claiming that L. grayi is a GMO herbicide borne bacteria found in bananas that causes uncontrolled crying and hair growth, and have the full support of the FDA behind their article.

…

Please don’t write that article.

A currently live example of why this was such a poor decision is that if you click through to some of the pages, they don’t exist (as of 7/27/15). I don’t know if the author intended to write them him/herself and never got around to it, or if they simply assumed the pages existed, and then didn’t bother to review the content. I’m not satisfied with either of those answers, and if alternatively the reference articles were removed at some point, that also highlights what a poor decision those links were.

Given the sheer number of PhD’s involved in the book’s creation, I think taxpayers should expect a resource with material actually reviewed and sanctioned by FDA. The poor editing here is unacceptable and a change should be made to the current edition of the book.

Many of the other pages in the book name multiple related species, but either included links to NIH or CDC or included no link at all, both of which are acceptable alternatives. I won’t name the authors and editors of the book here, anyone who wants to know can find them at the front of the document. If you’re interested in bringing this to FDA’s attention in your own way, they’re on twitter as @US_FDA and additional points of contact are available at www.fda.gov.



Food and Drug Administration (2012). Listeria Monocytogenes Bad Bug Book, Foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins. Second Edition, 99-100