Essay Food Irradiation

We have all wondered where, and how the poultry that is in our grocery stores had gotten there at some point in time, whether if we eat meat or not. When we find out, we are not too ecstatic with the results. It is unbelievable what they do just in order to get profit from the many variations of chicken the companies produce. They treat the birds as if they are not a living, breathing animal sitting right in front of them. They have no sympathy, for this wonderful creation, and all that it has to offer us. The companies only care about the money, and will do anything to get it. Big chicken industries such as Tyson and Perdue, force farmers to raise their chickens in certain ways, and by doing this, the chickens are raised in unhealthy conditions, which puts consumers’ health at risk.

This case study, finalized and updated onto the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, talks about the Multistate Outbreak of Salmonella Wandsworth Infections Linked to Veggie Booty. Publishing this outbreak onto their website makes it very beneficial and helps the public realize the importance of food health. Food health is just as important as overall public health. It is essential because people need to consume food in order to live, and if their food is tainted or contaminated, it would cause health problems and sickness and in some extreme cases, death. Ensuring food health will overall promote public health in the long run.

If the government were to get more involved in the meatpacking industry, the United States of America would have less outbreaks of foodborne illnesses.  The problem with E.coli, along with other foodborne illnesses start inside of the feedlots.  At this point, there are at least 250 known foodborne illnesses, which are mainly infections that are caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites in the meat.  In America, each state gets to decide for themselves, which diseases they have the public health department look for in their food.  Instead, the government should be checking for all possible diseases in the food throughout the country.  Due to the lack of inspections, Eric Schlosser states that "{e}very day in the United States, roughly

Tainted turkey is the likely source of the latest salmonella outbreak. An antibiotic-resistant strain of salmonella has made its way into at least 26 states, killing one person and sickening 77. On Wednesday, the U.S. health officials were investigating the source of the outbreak, which they believe is tied to tainted ground turkey. The probe so far points to a single facility. The location of which is being withheld? That has produced three of four salmonella-infected ground turkey samples taken from four stores. The salmonella strain involved worries officials because it is resistant to common antibiotics, raising the risk of hospitalization and treatment failure, the CDC says. It is estimated that 1 of 6 Americans or 48 million people (roughly) get sick from food borne illnesses, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from food borne illnesses. When they find out that someone has come in contact with a food borne illness they try to alert the rest of the U.S and remove that food from the selves, so that no one else comes in contact with the infectious disease.

I recently watched the documentary called Food Inc. in which it unveiled the unsanitary conditions of livestock farming. Some livestock farmers use antibiotic-treated feed for their animals because they become very ill. The reason for heavy use of antibiotics is that the lack of sanitation in the tunnel ventilated houses create infections in the animals. (Robert Kenner, 2009) In some cases, antibiotics are administered without the consultation of an accredited veterinarian and for no reason. There has been an increasing fear in the public that antibiotics used in the meat and poultry may have some unexpected negative effects after years of consumption. The Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) have published articles that report on the effects of medicated feed that may create antibiotic resistance in humans. The CDC reports that 3,800 cases of drug-resistant Salmonella Typhi infections occur per year in the United States (CDC, 2013.) Salmonella is a foodborne illness which is also contagious amongst food animals. In recent news, the World Health Organization (2015) has labeled red meat a carcinogen. This recent information fuels the public’s fear that there may be a link to human antibiotic resistance and the overuse of antibiotics in food animals . This type of news has made antibiotics in livestock feed an urgent public health issue. In order to prevent antibiotic resistance and deter this problem the proposed bill known as Senate Bill 770 (SB. 770)

Have people ever thought about the risks of on farm salmonella, and the danger it poses to hog herds as well as the public health? Salmonella control starts at the beginning of finishing farms, breeding herds, feed suppliers, and on to the slaughter houses. Salmonella control programs have already been established in several European countries to help reduce their salmonella on hog farms. Salmonella is one of the most important food borne pathogens as well as the second most common source of zoonotic human infection. Farmers and veterinarians are striving to pursue an effective plan to decrease salmonella on hog farms through several ways of prevention.

Chickens in the United States that are raised for meat are given antibiotics increase is size at such an alarming rate their bodies collapse under the stress. “ To put this growth rate into perspective, the University of Arkansas reports that if humans grew as fast as today’s chickens, we’d weight 349 pounds by our second birthday.” (Weber)When I look around at the state of our children, it’s hard to deny their victimization to the hormones ingested by theses animals. The reason behind the used of hormones is to allow the chickens, pigs and cows to grow at a faster pace, which shortens the time from birth to slaughter. Even though antibiotics are used in factory farming, this does not always prevent the spread of diseases, such as E. Coli and Salmonella because of the unsanitary handling practices. The space provide for chickens raised for meat is often filled with dust and fecal matter; these impurities can be inhaled or absorbed through skin of the chicken during the killing process leading to E. Coli contamination. “Scientific studies and government records suggest that

In 2011 there was a multistate outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg infections. There were a total of 190 affected individuals from 6 states [New York (109), New Jersey (62), Pennsylvania (10), Maryland (6), Ohio (2), and Minnesota (1)]. Research showed a correlation between the outbreak and a contaminated kosher chicken liver product labeled as "kosher broiled chicken livers" from Schreiber Processing Corporation. This product is one that not ready-to-eat requiring cooking before eating. According to investigations put forth by the CDC and FDA, consumers incorrectly assumed the word "broiled" on the label meant the chicken liver was ready-to-eat. Additionally, laboratory testing conducted by the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets Laboratory Division identified the outbreak strain of Salmonella Heidelberg in samples of the above-mentioned product. Once the specific bacterium was directly isolated and found to be present in the suspected food item, a recall of the chicken livers was implemented.

According to a piece by Paige M. Tomaselli, who practices law in the San Francisco Bay area, “In 2009 and 2010, eggs tainted with Salmonella were responsible for the most food-related illnesses” (Tomaselli). When the welfare of chickens is not considered it puts both humans and animals at risk. Salmonella infection can be nasty in humans, causing abdominal cramps, fever, and diarrhea. Tomaselli stated that in some factory farms, “The hens will come into contact with egg conveyer belts, exposing eggs to fecal bacteria. Dead birds are customarily left in and around cages with live hens and near eggs” (Tomaselli). A video released by the Humane Society of the United States or HSUS showed proof of this. In the video hens at the Cal-maine factory where stuffed into small cages that made their feet bleed. Dead hens and feces were everywhere. This is the perfect environment for many foodborne illnesses to manifest. If the animals were treated better, there might not have been so many outbreaks. This would have saved countless humans from

Foodborne illnesses are a problem in the United States. Foodborne illnesses are a problem because it is almost impossible for a pathogen to be identified by looking at a piece of meat. These foodborne illnesses are found mostly in packaged meat. Large corporations who process and package meat, cut corners in safety procedures so they can make more money. In, fact these corporations could take further action to prevent the spread of E Coli however that would cost them more money. Large corporations, however, pay so that laws like this won’t be put in place. Most of these corporations have former executives working in the government. There is a simple way to prevent the spread of foodborne illnesses, simply lobby for laws to be put in place for better safety procedures.

Americans have gone from eating roughly 234lbs of meat per capita in 980 to 273lbs in 2007 (qtd. Pluhar 2). In the past meat was a side on a dinner plate but as years have gone on, meat has become the main event. The increased demand for meat, as stated above, has caused issues with both the environment and animal welfare. But the demand has also caused issues with the welfare of humans. One of the issues humans face are the pathogens that are released from stressed, immune-compromised, containment-filled food animals (qtd. Pluhar 2). Because of the increased exposure, humans are more susceptible to diseases (qtd. Pluhar 2). Food borne illnesses are a big issue and since the commercialization of farming, the number of cases of food borne illnesses has grown. 76 million people are hit by fouled food annually in the United States. 5,000 of those people die (qtd. Pluhar 2). This is due to the slack regulations in the industry. Studies have been done in low CAFOs regions versus regions with a high concentration of CAFOs. One study showed that people were more likely to develop eczema in the regions with a high concentration of CAFOs. It could be argued that the increase in illnesses and the increase in factory farms could be completely unrelated. But research should be done to provide conclusive evidence showing the relationship between the two. People should be able to eat their food without worrying about

Amongst the most commonly encountered pathogens in the food industry: Norovirus, Salmonella, and Clostridium perfringens (National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) , Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED), ). LHD efforts regarding inspection, education, and food code enforcement through food safety & sanitation services are intended to reduce the incidence of those and many other enteric diseases. Researchers found an association between food safety and sanitation expenditures and decreased enteric illness rates from LHD data from both Washington and New York. In New Yok, for every additional dollar per person spent on food safety and sanitation services, the incidence rates of cryptosporidiosis decreased significantly by 0.091 cases per 10,000 person-years among New York LHDs. In Washington, for every additional dollar per person spent on food safety and sanitation services, the incidence rate of salmonellosis decreased by 0.053 cases per 10,000 person-years among Washington

Is it safe? This is a natural question when discussing sending radiation through your food. Especially this day in age when everyone is so conscious of what goes through their body. I’m here to assure you though that it’s completely safe. According to Dr. Charlotte P. Brennand, a food safety specialist at Idaho State University, the irradiation process does not cause food to become radioactive and has little to no nutritional harm to the food. In reality, food that is irradiated is more nutritional than food that is not irradiated. The FDA stated that irradiation improves the safety and shelf life of treated foods by reducing or eliminating insects and microorganisms. When food is irradiated, you may lose a little natural nutritional content

Poultry and its products has traditionally been the route of salmonella infection in humans in the UK. Outbreaks of salmonella of 60% to 80% are usually termed as sporadic cases; this could be down to the fact that domestic animals widely carry salmonella bacteria.

* Ensure public safety: A majority of salmonella species can be inactivated if the restaurant chain operates at documented pasteurization temperatures. However, in the event of the infection reaching the public, there is a significant morbidity and mortality rate. Hospitalization and death rates can be as high as 33% and 3% respectively. (Schlundt, 2001) Exhibit 1 shows the number of Salmonella-related deaths and death rates in the past 10 years.