The concept behind food safety infosheets is to take recent foodborne illness media coverage, and relevant evidence, and provide it to food handlers in a nice package. At first, they were text heavy, boring and weren’t very good. After a couple of years of refinement food safety infosheets turned into tool resulting in measured changes in practices.
Info Sheet Link – Campylobacter in Pate Outbreak
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged food handlers, Food Safety, foodborne illness, relevant evidence
Sprouts have gained popularity worldwide due to their nutritional values and health benefits. The fact that their consumption has been associated with numerous outbreaks of foodborne illness threatens the $250 million market that this industry has established in the United States. Therefore, sprout manufacturers have utilized the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended application of 20,000 ppm of calcium hypochlorite solution to seeds before germination as a preventative method. Concentrations of up to 200 ppm of chlorine wash are also commonly used on sprouts. However, chlorine-based treatment achieves on average only 1- to 3-log reductions in bacteria and is associated with negative health and environmental issues. The search for alternative strategies has been widespread, involving chemical, biological, physical, and hurdle processes that can achieve up to 7-log reductions in bacteria in some cases. The compilation here of the current scientific data related to these techniques is used to compare their efficacy for ensuring the microbial safety of sprouts and their practicality for commercial producers. Of specific importance for alternative seed and sprout treatments is maintaining the industry-accepted germination rate of 95% and the sensorial attributes of the final product. This review provides an evaluation of suggested decontamination technologies for seeds and sprouts before, during, and after germination and concludes that thermal inactivation of seeds and irradiation of sprouts are the most practical stand-alone microbial safety interventions for sprout production.
As many as 80 children and parents have reportedly fallen ill with nausea, diarrhea and vomiting after attending a youth football tournament in Las Vegas last week, according to NBC affiliate News 3.
As of Sunday afternoon, the exact cause of illness was still unclear, but at least 13 children and five adults have been treated at hospitals for foodborne illness.
If you’ve ever become sick after eating a food contaminated with disease-causing bacteria, it’s not an experience you want to repeat.
But if you’re part of what is called an “at-risk” or “vulnerable” population, a foodborne illness can be extremely dangerous. Symptoms—such as vomiting, diarrhea and fever—can intensify and the illness can become life-threatening.
Posted in Bacteria, FDA, Food Hygiene, Food Illness, Food Inspections, Food Micro Blog, Food Microbiology, Food Poisoning, Food Safety, Food Safety Alert, Food Testing, Foodborne Illness, Hygiene, Illness, Laboratory, Microbiology, Pathogen, Research
Tagged dangerous symptoms, diarrhea, disease causing bacteria, foodborne illness, vulnerable population
FoodWorld 