Meat Thawing Method

In the food industry, cross-contamination is a major concern since it can lead to people becoming ill with food-related illnesses. This issue occurs when harmful bacteria is transferred from one food source to another through improper handling methods. Often times, cutting boards are the problem due to cutting a variety of foods on the same board without washing it in between to sanitise. For example, a worker may cut raw chicken on the board and he or she will chop vegetables on the same board. The salmonella on the chicken is spread to the vegetables and may harm those who eat the vegetables just for one example. Below, we explain how colour coded

Have you ever wondered how big of a problem foodborne illness is on the federal level in the United States? Foodborne illness is a big problem on the public health. Foodborne illnesses are infections caused by beverages or foods that contain harmful bacteria, viruses, parasites and/or chemicals. Foods can also be contaminated with bacteria during the food preparation you do at home or the preparation done at a restaurant. If the food cooks or food preparers do not carefully wash their hands, kitchen tools, cutting boards, and other kitchen surfaces that come into contact with raw foods, cross contamination can occur which is the spread of bacteria from contaminated foods to uncontaminated foods. If hot food is not kept hot enough or cold food is not kept cold enough, bacteria can multiply. Bacteria multiplies very quickly when the temperature of food is between 40 and 140 degrees. Cold food should be kept below 40 degrees and hot food should be kept above 140 degrees. Bacteria multiplies slower when food is refrigerated. Freezing food can also slow or even stop the spread of bacteria. But once food is brought to room temperature once again the bacteria that is refrigerated or frozen becomes active once again. Thoroughly cooking foods can also kill bacterias that cause foodborne illnesses. The common symptoms of foodborne illnesses are vomiting, diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, and/or the chills. The Federal government has estimated that there is about 48 million cases of

Make sure you refrigerate perishable foods within two hours. And don’t forget to always wash your hands with soap and water before handling food and after touching raw meat.

Health and the CDC linked bacteria from Topps' frozen ground beef patties to an outbreak of the

During slaughter of animals (cattle or chicken) the meat can be contaminated by C. perfringens bacteria with the animal’s intestinal content or even worse by their feces, therefore; meat has to be cooked properly

Our initial purpose of researching this topic has been inspired by the growing concern for the outbreak of Mad Cow Disease and it's various forms. We believe that it is imperative that we take our research and implement it to others along with facts in order to generate concern for other countries regulations, United States regulations, health concerns and economical awareness.

Experiment 2 focused primarily on different forms of deli turkey due to the results of high microbial count on the deli turkey sampled in experiment 1. 4 different samples of deli turkey were obtained: first, the same deli turkey sampled in experiment 1 which was considered non-natural sliced turkey from Hannaford, sliced organic deli turkey with no preservatives from Hannaford, non-natural prepackaged turkey from a Lunchables and organic prepackaged turkey with no preservatives from Waterhill. The hypothesis for experiment 2 was that the samples that came in contact with the meat slicer or not prepackaged meat was going to yield the most microbes disregarding whether or not the meat was nitrate free or contained preservatives. To prove or disprove this hypothesis, each sample was put through the dilution process explained in the methods section. Modifications do

I only use foods that have not expired. Handling raw meat, I wipe countertops that may have come into contact, cleaned utensils, cutting boards, and washed my hands after contact with raw meat. I rinse all produce of visible soil and dirt to minimize risk of pathogens prior to cooking or eating. I am careful with eggs as my method of cracking them on the side of the pan has a slight risk of eggshell consumption, a source of foodborne illness. With meats, I try to cook chicken thoroughly to eliminate infectious bacteria. I often eat raw vegetables after I clean them. With steak, I often eat medium rare thinking that the external surfaces contain the highest risk of contamination while the inside, has less inherent risk. With ground beef, this need to get cooked through as more of the meat surface is potentially exposed to bacteria, and the grinding causes bacteria to be mixed throughout the

Did you know that foodborne illness kills 3,000 people each year? At least 128,000 Americans are hospitalized from foodborne illnesses. Most foodborne illnesses are acute, meaning they happen suddenly and last a short time, and most people recover on their own without treatment. Foodborne illnesses are infections caused by food or beverages that contain harmful bacteria, parasite, viruses or chemicals. If you develop foodborne illness/food poisoning rest and drink lots of water. All foods have small amounts of bacteria. Symptoms of the diseases are abdominal cramping, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, headache and body ache. “Easy way to prevent food illness are to cook to the right temperature, wash your hands and surface often, refrigerate foods promptly, and separate raw meats from other foods.” (https://www.cdc.gov) The CDC estimates that 48 million foodborne illnesses cases occur in the United States every year.

This outbreak showed how important certain methods of prevention from foodborne illnesses are. There are a few ways in which this outbreak could have been prevented. For example, appropriate cooking temperatures, especially when cooking chicken liver is fundamental. Specifically, the internal temperature of chicken liver needs to be 165 degrees F. Therefore, if the livers were being cooked properly, then many of the ill individuals could have been

There are many deadly pathogens that could get into your meat. One of these is E-Coli. This could kill people if it happened to be in your meat. Another type of pathogen that could make you very sick is Salmonella (Nikiforuk 18). “Salmonella kills more Americans than any other food borne illness, with over 100,000 Americans falling ill annually by salmonella infected eggs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1,000,000 cases of salmonella poisoning in America alone can be directly tied to feed containing animal products

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

this is also in between the danger zone of 40-140 degrees F. where bacteria could have already started to form on raw meats. I was concerned about that because I noticed that a large turkey was sitting out on the counter defrosting and the ordinance states that to avoid food contamination, frozen food may be prepared from a frozen state or must be refrigerated at temperatures below 38 degrees F. For up to two hours, frozen food may be thawed out under running water at a temperature of 70 degrees F. or below. The turkey was still out on the counter at the time I left around 1 p.m. The assistants were working diligently but not complying with the ordinance; no one was wearing hair nets and I saw an assistant who was chopping beef and once finished, she used the same instrument to chop chicken without cleaning and sanitizing it. Also, during my inspection of the freezer and refrigerator as stated before everything was clean and organized but I was not able to identify what was in the containers because they were not labeled or dated. I also noticed that neither unit had a thermometer in it so I wasn’t aware if they were in compliance of being below 38 degrees F. for the refrigerator or below 0 degrees F. for the freezer.

According to a study conducted by Susan Friedberg, people want healthy food that is easily accessible to them. Aesthetics and price are also important to consumers. Friedberg looks at how the invention of refrigeration changed society. Refrigeration, when done properly, can preserve the quality of a product (Friedberg). The lifetime of frozen fruit and vegetables is significantly longer than animal products. While fruits and vegetables remain safe in the freezer for eight to ten months, processed meat only holds for one to two months. Most people who consume meat are unaware of the appropriate shelf life of meat and will consume meat that has been frozen anywhere from eight to twelve months later (Andress and Harrison). Bad meat is a breeding

Around the globe, 1.6 billion people have no access to refrigeration at all. In developing countries, food fails to make the journey from producers to consumers simply due to issues such as lack of refrigeration.