Salmonella. E. coli. Mad cow disease. Beef, spinach, peanut butter. Every few months there's a new food-borne threat to worry about, or a grocery favorite to avoid. This time around, it’s eggs—half a billion of them.. In a country as technologically advanced and heavily regulated as the United States, food shouldn't be so complicated. But even as consumers have become better-versed in home food-safety techniques, mass production has made it easier for food-borne illnesses (and the mass hysteria that follows) to spread across the country. So, more than a century after the idea of "food poisoning" first entered the public consciousness, we're still fighting some of the same, mysterious battles to make sure that what we eat is safe. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that food safety problems now account for roughly 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths annually. With help from Morton Satin, director of the Salt Institute and author of two books on food poisoning and safety, here's a look at how food safety has changed—and how it hasn't—over the past 120 years.