Societal Impact of Salmonella Essay

Schwan’s Sales Enterprise had the largest foodborne illness outbreak in history in Marshall, Minnesota around 1994 (Rubenstein, 1998). Cliff Viessman, a tanker truck operator transported a shipment of raw eggs that may have been infected with salmonella bacteria. The suspected contamination was unknown to Viessman’s employees. A foodborne illness is an infection or irritation of the gastrointestinal that caused by food or beverages that contain harmful bacteria, parasites, viruses, or chemicals. The company truck was parked and pressure washed to eliminate the bacteria. The next assignment was to transport ice cream mix to the Schwan’s plant (Rubenstein, 1998). Schwan’s company heard about the bacteria that may have affected their product and

The book Poisoned by Jeff Benedict was not only enjoyable but also has a lot of information concerned food safety. The author writes chronologically a story about the Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak that took place in Washington State on 1993 because that event change the way American eating habits. The outbreak was confirmed by Dr, Phil Tarr after he was receiving many patient who were children under 10 years old, and had the same symptoms. The number of patient and the brutality of the symptoms leaded to Dr, Tarr to contact an old friend that they used to work together particularly in E.coli. Tarr's friend was John Kobayashi who has the high position in the Department on the public heath Washington State Public Department (Benedict, 2011).

Salmonella is a bacterial disease that occurs in the intestines, the signs and symptoms can be; fever, or other illnesses such as diarrhea and abdominal cramps. People typically get salmonella from contaminated foods, which seems to occur frequently from poultry and eggs (Nordqvist, 2016). This is just a basic look at salmonella though, next we need to look at the epidemiologic triad (host, agent, and environment) and see how each plays a role in a salmonella outbreak.

Initially, the outbreak and recall was set for bagged spinach on September 14th, but the very next day the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recalled all spinach, both bagged and fresh. The outbreak was due to a suspected E. coli O157:H7. Because of the outbreak, 200 people were reported to the CDC from 26 states as having been infected with that particular outbreak strain; more than 100 of those cases were hospitalized, and 31 of them developed a form of kidney failure, which resulted in the deaths of three people. So why is a breakout that may only have affected 200 people so important and relevant to everyone? It’s important to make sure that our food is edible and not contaminated because in this situation with spinach—according to data collected through surveys— nearly half (48%) of Americans reported that they ate fresh spinach before the recall and did so frequently. There was no complete resolution on the exact cause of E. Coli on spinach, but it was believed to be from samples taken from a stream and from feces of cattle and wild pigs present on ranches, due to a genetic match from those who were infected. For some consumers, the spinach recall may be a type of “signal event” indicating a wider problem that they do not yet see as having been solved. Although spinach is something that is generally looked at as “healthy” to its consumers, it is apparent that there is still a problem with the safety and health concerning fresh produce for the public. This occurrence in 2006 was a turning point for many, realizing that even what should be our freshest food can be contaminated, and that more effort needs to be taken in order to protect the public from

Brandon McKnight Professor Cox English 1000 9 November 2016 A Country and Its Food Just this year the CDC reported a multi-state wide outbreak of E. coli (STEC) in flour. The contaminated flour was shipped to twenty-four states and caused sixty-three people to become ill. Further investigation of the outbreak linked a General Mills flour factory in Kansas City, Missouri to the production of the tainted flour (Center For Disease Control). An outbreak like this is extremely difficult to track, there are multiple steps in the production process where the contamination could have occurred.

Due to the alarming lack of attention and care to the raisings of meats used in fast food restaurants, foodborne illnesses can and have appeared in items from places like Taco Bell and Jack in the Box. These diseases can then spread rapidly among the community as family members, classmates, coworkers, and even strangers come in contact, direct or indirect, with the infected: “People have been infected by drinking contaminated water, by swimming in a contaminated lake, by playing at a contaminated water park, by crawling on a contaminated carpet” (201). Schlosser reveals how vulnerable communities are to foodborne outbreaks - areas as small as a neighborhood or as large as a state are all susceptible to an outbreak. Because of this, people should be more careful of what they eat and should be more aware of where their food really comes from, both for their own sake and their

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.

Chapter 9 of the literature shows the spread of bacteria called E. Coli 0157:H7 as well as its negative effects. E. Coli 0157:H7 was found in the beef and 25 million pounds had already been eaten. The food poisoning was spreading rapidly and 200,000 people got sick. Schlosser claimed that since there is bad in the meat that is why people are getting an ill eating hamburger. Americans were getting afraid and constantly people were getting infected, especially children, elderly, and people with impaired immune systems. According to the literature,“...progressed to diarrhea that filled a hospital toilet with blood… drilling holes in his skull to relieve pressure, inserting tubes in his chest to keep him breathing, as Shia toxins destroyed his

coli, another undisclosed truth comes to light in this documentary. To get rid of the E. coli, our meat products are thoroughly cleansed with ammonia. Ammonia is a chemical that most Americans recognize as a household cleaning item, and now this chemical is in our meat. We are being secretly exposed to this chemical and it is not even guaranteed to work 100% of the time. However, this is not the only chemical used in our food. When eating an out of season fruit, Americans run the risk of eating a fruit that is artificially ripened. Since tomatoes cannot grow in America in the winter, they are picked while green from overseas. Once they arrive in America and are ready to go to market, they are ripened with ethylene gas. Ethylene gas “contains traces of arsenic and phosphorus hydride” (Siddiqui). These traces can cause chronic health defects such as “vomiting, diarrhea with or without blood, burning sensation of the chest and abdomen, thirst, weakness, permanent eye damage, etc.” (Siddiqui). As we can see, the major food companies hide very serious issues from the public, because if they knew the truth, many consumers would be appalled and possibly stop buying their products.

Companies should to admit the potential danger of different salmonella’s strains and allow to add them to the list of adulterants. The video gave enough evidences that bacteria cause severe health issues and even death. Manufacturers also should stop to screen themselves behind the legislative system and start to act before the appearance of evidences like unopened pack of chicken with the strain of salmonella that caused an outbreak. Prompt response will help to prevent the development of long-term consequences and will show that the company really cares about its consumers. Poultry manufacturers can also provide funding for researches on salmonella treatment as one of the main sources of the

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the multistate outbreak of human salmonella linked with live and frozen feeder rodents. Salmonella is a human and animal pathogen that has many different serotypes, but one of the most common serotypes is Salmonella Typhimurium, which this specific case focuses on. Salmonella can easily spread to people that are in contact with infected animals, including reptiles, amphibians, rodents, birds, livestock, as well as dogs and cats (PHAC, 2014). Moreover, animals carry this bacteria even when they are normal and healthy. Nevertheless, pet foods can be contaminated with the Salmonella bacteria, and can infect the pet as well (PHAC, 2014). In this case, pets that have consumed the infected rodents, also carry the bacteria which transmits the pathogen to humans. According to the study, the key causes of this infection are due to the fact that that rodents sold as food are associated with the pet reptiles and amphibians through direct or indirect contact (CDC, 2014). This particular outbreak surfaced in 2009 in the United Kingdom and in 2010

Salmonella is a prokaryotic, rod shaped, bacterial organism. It is nonsporeforming and Gram-negative.(1) Salmonella is responsible for almost 60 percent of reported cases of bacterial food borne illness and 40 percent of all food borne illness of any kind. Salmonella survives digestion and reproduces in the small intestine, making people sick. Salmonella has hundreds of different types, all of which cause much the same illness in humans. Eating food containing live salmonella bacteria causes salmonellosis. (2)

“In the United States of America, for example, around 76 million cases of food-borne diseases, resulting in 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths, are estimated to occur each year.”

From 2006 to 2011 Taco Bell’s reputation was suffering tremendously and it all started when there was an E. Coli outbreak. E. Coli or Escherichia coli is for the most part being a common yet harmless bacteria but extreme strains have been known to cause a variety of symptoms from abdominal cramps to diarrhea. The E. coli outbreak resulted in 71 infections, 53 hospitalizations, and 8 cases of people with kidney failure that spread over the course of 5 states. Taco Bell which is a Mexican-style restaurant market in the U.S. that serves burritos, tacos and other Mexican specialties. The illnesses onset ranged from November 20 to December 6. The peak of the people becoming ill was the very last week of November. Past December 6 there was no further outbreak of the disease. After the outbreak CDC, the center for disease and control and

* 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.