In spite of the fact that the United States presumably have the safest food safety system in the world, the statistics on foodborne diseases in the US is alarmingly high. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) 2011 report, about 48 million or 1 in 6 Americans contract a foodborne illness each year. Of […]
What is Food Intoxication? Unlike food infection which requires the presence of living pathogens, food intoxication occurs due to harmful chemicals in food, independent of pathogens. These chemicals may be natural, such as toxins produced by bacteria and mold, or toxins in plant foods, e.g. solanine in potatoes and cyanide in cassava. They may alternately […]
Food is often contaminated with pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, leading to a host of foodborne illnesses. In order to cause health problems, pathogens must display characteristics such as the ability to withstand stomach acid, resistance to digestive enzymes, and the ability to compete with pre-existing gut microflora. If they meet these criteria, infection […]
Employees can be a major source of contamination since they come in frequent contact with food during processing. Lack of proper hand washing is the second-most cause of foodborne illness. One of the first persons to promote washing of hands as a means to reduce incidences of disease was Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian Physician in […]
Cleaning and sanitation are important operations in a food plant, necessary to minimize biological and other hazards that could lead to foodborne illnesses. These hazards come from several sources. Look back at your notes in the previous lesson to recall some of these sources. The cleaning and sanitation processes are two different steps in a […]
Gel electrophoresis is a forensic method used to compare different DNA and identify similarities between them. This is useful in maternity and paternity tests, identification of person responsible for a crime, and can also be used to find out the cause of an infectious disease including foodborne disease outbreak. DNA samples are usually very small in […]
Food safety programs such as HACCP are primarily focused on food science, regulatory rules and regulations, documentation, verification tests, and training. While these are great aspects of building and maintaining a viable food safety plan, they are not enough. Along with food safety management, building a food safety culture is essential. Frank Yiannas discussed this idea in […]
The terms validation and verification are often confused. During validation, you determine if your HACCP system is designed and capable to eliminate hazards or reduce them to a safe level. Verification on the other hand consist of ongoing activities to determine if the HACCP system is working effectively. HACCP validation should be done during the […]
