Food Poisoning not only from meat! E-coli not the biggest problem.According to the Swedish National Food Administration (Report nr. 12/99) about verified incidents (123 incidents) of Food Poisoning in the town of Uppsala, Sweden, during 1999.
5 of the reported food poisonings came from beef.
7 from chicken.
16 from mixed dishes.
1 from milk (dairy) products.
4 from salads, podded plants, etc.
4 from sauces (incl. sallad sauces).
7 from fish, shrimps, etc.
3 from bread, and outher "bakery products".
35 from unknown sources.
18 from other sources.
You wrote that ecoli-related illness a far bigger problem for meat and dairy products. If you look at reported food poisoning (se above), beef and sallads accounts for approximately the same number of food poisoning. This doesn't imply that meat is much more dangerous than vegetables. Even here I'm sure you can find data showing that it's more like you say, but playing around with statistics doesn't change facts.
In Sweden at least (I don't know if there is big differences between different countries) campylobacter and viruses are the most common microorganisms that causes food poisoning, not E-coli.
The best way to avoid food poisoning is to be a good friend of soap and water. Bad hygiene (resturants, slaghterhouses, at home, etc.) is the major cause to food poisoning. So in the numbers above it is "dirty" ingredients, bad heating, etc, that is behind the most of the incidents.
// Lars
