Pennsylvania and New Jersey given low grades for foodborne illness reporting

Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware each earned a "D" on report cards for their reporting of foodborne illness outbreaks over 10 years, according to grading done by the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

The fewer outbreaks per capita that were reported to the federal government, the lower the grade, the health advocacy group said Wednesday, because that generally means more eruptions are going undetected.

Pennsylvania reported 373 outbreaks between 1998 and 2007, New Jersey reported 132, and Delaware reported 16. Those numbers translated to two to three outbreaks per million population, the range assigned a grade of "D."

More than half the states received grades of "D" or "F" (one outbreak per million); just nine states got the equivalent of an "A" (eight or more outbreaks per million).

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