For generations, Americans were led to believe that the United States had the world's safest food supply. Secure in the knowledge that federal inspectors and the food industry would stand guard over the fields, processing plants and slaughter houses from which our food comes, we believed that there was little risk of anything harmful appearing on our plates, save for the occasional unrefrigerated potato salad at a summer picnic.

But in 1993 reality hit: A series of food poisonings--from strange-sounding bacteria, viruses and chemicals--converged to change the way America thinks about food. And the message from both government and industry in response to these crises was surprising, but clear: Food preparation has become a game of chance, and individual consumers alone are responsible for ensuring that the food on their dinner table is safe to eat.

At hearings and debates throughout the year, government and industry experts conceded that the system has grown too large, too complex and too intricate for any official or private enterprise to guarantee purity. There is no ever-watchful system to swoop in and make everything right when food contamination is exposed. And as resources are spread exceptionally thin, federal inspection programs continue to fall further behind modern production methods or don't exist at all.

What's more, food-borne bacteria continue to evolve into new, more infectious strains, with serious and sometimes fatal consequences.

Last year, for instance, began on a dismal note. Within the first few weeks of 1993, our confidence in the food supply was shattered by a little-known bacteria called \o7 E. coli\f7 O157:H7, which had taken hold in the seemingly innocuous hamburger. Contaminated ground meat served at Jack-in-the-Box and purchased from U.S. and Australian suppliers was making people sick up and down the Pacific Coast. Hundreds became seriously ill and several children died.

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The symbolism of hamburgers as poison prompted public demand that something be done. The new Clinton Administration sent a Presidential envoy to Washington state in search of causes. But 12 months later, federal officials are no closer to knowing the origins of the contaminated meat than they were in January of 1993. All subsequent investigations have ended without answering the critical question of exactly where the system first failed. More important, no one is reassuring the public that similar, and more severe, episodes can be prevented in the future.