dinnerTampaBay.com reports that like a plot from a horror movie, the thing that is supposed to make people healthy instead sickens and kills them. Only it’s really happening in the United States in the form of foodborne illness, increasingly from fresh vegetables.

That’s what killed a 2-year-old in Idaho earlier this year when his mother added spinach to his smoothie drink. The spinach was contaminated with a particularly virulent strain of E. coli bacteria that showed up again recently in ingredients (most likely lettuce) used by some Taco Bell restaurants. In all, 5,000 Americans die and 76-million are sickened each year by foodborne illnesses.

How can it happen in a society as advanced as ours? The answer seems to come down to careless farming and production practices and inadequate federal oversight.