We all need to eat, but what we buy at the supermarket can make us sick if we aren't careful.

"Among all industrialized nations, the United States is one of the leading countries for research, laws, regulations, practice, and protocols to maintain food safety," according to Jagdish Khubchandani, a professor of public health at New Mexico State University who specializes in food safety. Yet, he notes that, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, almost a sixth of the American population will experience a foodborne illness every year. According to the Food and Drug Administration, more than 100,000 of those people will be hospitalized and more than 3,000 will die.