Food Safety

Preventing Foodborne Illness

Food Safety

A foodborne illness is a disease that is transmitted to humans by food.

What is foodborne illness?

Food Infection – the microorganism itself grows inside your body and is the main source of your symptomsMost common - Salmonella, Campylobacter,

Listeria, Norwalk, Trichinosis

Food Intoxication – a chemical or natural toxin (often a by product of the bacteria present in food) causes your symptoms or illness.Most common – Staphylococcus Aureus,

Escherichia coli 0157, Clostridium Perfringens and Clostridium Botulinum

Food Infection vs. Food Intoxication

Moist, high-protein, and/or low acid foods are potentially dangerous.

High protein foods consist of milk or milk products, eggs, meats, poultry, fish, shellfish, shrimp, lobster, crab.

High Protein Foods

Potatoes, tofu and other soy protein foods, raw seed sprouts such as alfalfa or bean sprouts, green leafy vegetables, berries and tomatoes also pose a hazard.

These foods can support rapid growth of infectious or disease-causing microorganisms.

Other possible sources include…

Everyone, but infants, young children, pregnant women, the elderly, and people who are chronically ill have a greater risk of developing a foodborne illness because their immune systems may not be able to fight off the bacteria and viruses that cause the illness.

Those at greater risk should avoid consuming potentially hazardous foods that are raw or not fully cooked.

Who is at risk?

Food becomes hazardous by contamination. Contamination is the unintended presence of harmful substances or microorganisms in food. Food can become contaminated from chemical, physical or biological sources.

How does food become hazardous?

Chemical hazards include substances such as cleaning solutions and sanitizers.

Chemical hazards

Physical hazards are foreign particles, like glass, metal, or fingernails.

Physical hazards

Biological hazards come mainly from microorganisms including bacteria, viruses and parasites.

Biological hazards

Cross-contamination is the transportation of harmful substances to food by:

Hands that touch raw foods, such as chicken, then touch food that will not be cooked, like salad ingredients.

Surfaces, like cutting boards or cleaning cloths, that touch raw foods, are not cleaned and sanitized, then touch ready-to-eat food.

Raw or contaminated foods that touch or drip fluids on cooked or ready-to-eat foods.

What is Cross-contamination?

Microorganisms are everywhere. You may not see, taste, or smell them, but they hide on your body, in the air, on kitchen counters and utensils, and in food. The main microorganisms are viruses, parasites, fungi and bacteria.

What should you know about microorganisms?

Viruses are the tiniest, and probably the simplest, form of life.

They are not able to reproduce outside a living cell yet can survive for a period of time even on inanimate objects, such as door handles, pencils, tabletops, backpacks, etc.

Viruses

Some viruses are extremely resistant to heat and cold.

The food is mainly a transportation device to get from one host to another.

Hepatitis A and norovirus have been identified as the cause of many foodborne illness outbreaks.

• Parasites need to live on or in a host to survive.

• Examples of parasites that may contaminate food or water are Trichinella spiralis (trichinosis) that affects pork and Anisakis roundworm that affects fish.

Parasites

Fungi can be microscopic or as big as a giant mushroom. Fungi are found in the air, soil, plants, animals, water,

and some food. Molds and yeast are fungi. Molds may produce

dangerous toxins in food. Yeast development in foods will affect quality.

Fungi

Of all the microorganisms, bacteria are the greatest threat to food safety.

Bacteria are single-celled, living organisms that can grow quickly at favorable temperatures.

What is the greatest threat to food safety?

Some bacteria are infectious disease-causing agents called pathogens, that use the nutrients found in potentially hazardous foods to multiply.

Some bacteria are not infectious on their own, but when they multiply in potentially hazardous food, they eject toxins that poison humans when the food is eaten.

Bad Bacteria

Under the right conditions, bacteria can double every 10 to 30 minutes. A single bacterium will double with each division—two become four, four become eight, and so on. A single cell can become billions in 10 to 12 hours.

Some bacteria are useful. We use them to make foods like cheese, buttermilk, sauerkraut, pickles, and yogurt.

Some Bacteria Can Be Good

Food handling practices are risky when they allow harmful bacteria to contaminate and grow in food.

If you touch a food during preparation, you may transfer several thousand bacteria to its surface.

How Does Food Become Contaminated?

Bacteria grow fastest in the temperature range between 40°F and 140°F

This is known as the Temperature Danger Zone.

Keep Hot Foods Hot and Cold Foods Cold!

Bacteria are found on the hair, skin, mouth, nose and in the throat of healthy people.

According to one estimate, nearly 50 percent of healthy food handlers carry disease agents that can be transmitted by food.

Handle Food Safely!

The most important tool you have to prevent foodborne illness is good personal hygiene.

Personal hygiene is the way a person maintains their health, appearance and cleanliness.

A cough or sneeze can transmit thousands of microorganisms that may cause disease.

Your hands can be the most potentially dangerous serving equipment you use.

Scratching your scalp, running your fingers through your hair, or touching a pimple can cause the transmission of pathogenic microorganisms into food.

Wash your hands often!

Symptoms of foodborne illnesses may take hours or even days to appear.

Most common symptoms include: abdominal cramps, headache, vomiting, diarrhea (may be bloody), fever, and in some cases death.

Since the symptoms are so similar to the flu, some people may not realize they have a foodborne illness.

Symptoms of Foodborne Illness

• Foodborne illnesses are caused by agents that enter the body through the ingestion of food.

Every person is at risk of foodborne illness.

May be serious for very young, very old, people with long term illness

Reaction may occur in a few hours or up to several days after exposure

Foodborne Illnesses can be preventable

Symptoms Abdominal cramps, headache, vomiting, diarrhea (may be bloody),

fever, death.

Review

Journal – Do think the food you eat at home is safe? What about the food you eat in restaurants? Why or why not? What can you do to help keep it safe to eat?