sandra eskin is director of food safety at the pugh charitable trust. she joins us now.nk you very much for being with us. 48 million americans a year are sickened by foodborne illness. what are the biggest contributors to that? meat and poultry? produce? what? >> statistics show that an increasing number of illnesses are linked to produce, but we have historically seen illnesses due to meat and poultry products. so we still have different foodborne illnesses, different pathogens, related to different products. >> but in general, when you look at the u.s. food system, it has improved, has it not, over the years? nothing's perfect, obviously, and we probably still need improvement. but how would you kind of rate it or difference a thumbnail sketch of how safe it is? >> sure. definitely the food supply, the safety of the food supply has improved. we have one of the safest food supplies in the world, but we can make it safer. we had a lot of luck dealing with certain pathogens, certain bacteria like e. coli. if you look back to the 1990s as was mentioned in the report, we h