The Bacterium Affected Enterprise Food

The Maple leaf foods listeria outbreak resulted 22 deaths and a widespread recall of luncheon meat, Sandwiches and deli platters, more than  220 packages of produce and a 20$ million dollar settlement for the company as well as consumer confidence in the produce was jolted. The Outbreak was caused by two meat slicing machine’s that were contaminated with Listeriosis and not cleaned properly.

The review indicated that there were several deficiencies existed at this plant, which contributed to the outbreak. For example, Maple Leaf Foods’ plant was aware that it had occurrences of Listeria in the plant in 2007 and 2008, and tried to correct the problem with sanitation procedures. As a result, the plant’s management thought Listeria was under control. Maple Leaf Foods did not conduct the trend analysis required under its Listeria control policy. Without this analysis, the recurring positive results were not identified. Also, the company did not establish an effective escalation process for the repeated occurrence of the bacteria. Furthermore, as a response to a market opportunity, Maple Leaf Foods produced large quantity of its deli meat products, targeted specifically to institutions such as hospitals and long-term care facilities serving high risk individuals, using a low-sodium recipe that increased the potential for Listeria to grow3. However, Maple Leaf Foods did not make corresponding adjustments or improvements to enhance its food safety procedures to reflect the higher risk identified in this special kind of deli products. Apparently, in this issue, Maple Leaf Foods was an active agent; it purposely reduced the sodium to cater

E.coli outbreaks have steadily grown over the last few decades. An expansion in big farming has led to E. coli not only being found in meat, but vegetation as well, due to waste runoff. This has increased our need for adequate antibiotics that can fight bacteria, like E. coli. The best way to pinpoint which antibiotics work is by measuring their ability to create antimicrobial agents or zones of inhibition. When a paper disc that has been saturated in an antibiotic is inserted in a solution of E.coli and medium, the zone of inhibition will be noted as the clear ring that forms around the disk. The antibiotics efficacy is then determined by measuring each disk zone of inhibition, and comparing these measurements to the zone measurements of an untreated specimen. If an antibiotic is to be deemed sufficient for treating E. coli it should show a zone of inhibition that is at least double the size of the untreated specimen.

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

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

There are many areas things can go wrong in the process of raising, slaughtering, and packaging the beef for human consumption. Especially so in slaughterhouses and processing plants, as there are many potential contamination hazards, and most depend on human attention to catch and correct. The cattle may arrive at the slaughterhouse with feces on their hides, which present the first risk of contamination as it can be very difficult to remove the hides from the animal without transferring any of the pathogen bearing feces to the carcass. The second high-risk area in the slaughterhouse is the gutting station, where at some locations, workers are expected to keep up an extremely fast pace, as many as sixty cattle per hour, which does not provide adequate time to prevent accidents. A ruptured gut sac can leave a carcass intended for human consumption covered in fecal matter or stomach acids all potentially containing the potentially deadly foodborne bacteria (Schlosser 203). At these slaughterhouses, steps are taken to clean and disinfect the carcasses, but E. coli is hard to kill. It is encouraged by the Agricultural Department to begin testing at these locations for E. coli, but most choose not to, as they stand to suffer significant monetary damage if they discover any E. coli present in their products (Moss 3). Most slaughterhouses will not sell their products to processing plants that plan to pre-screen the meat before combining and

Foodborne illness is one of the more common illnesses that affects every 1 in 6 Americans each year according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) (cdc.gov). Of those 48 million people, about 128,00 are hospitalized while 3,000 are left dead (cdc.gov). Foods such as: fruits, vegetables, meat and poultry, and shellfish, are the number one causers of foodborne illness. Produce accounted for the highest affecting food group with leafy greens causing more than 46% by the norovirus (https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/attribution/attribution-1998-2008.html). Poultry accounted for the most deaths with findings of Salmonella and Listeria as the two main bacteria causing agents.

In August-October 2011 there was an outbreak of the Bacteria Listeriosis coming from a Colorado farm called Jensen Farm. Jensen farm held a press conference on September fourteenth and voluntarily recalled their cantaloupe. The cost associated with just one food borne illness shocked me. The symptoms of this outbreak were the same for many of the victims which included: fever, muscle aches, and diarrhea. The causalities were extremely high in this outbreak. There were 146 total infections, 30 deaths, and even a miscarriage roaming over 28 states in total. Most People who became ill were over sixty and fifty-eight percent were female (Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis Linked to Whole Cantaloupes from Jensen Farms,

Nina Redman talks about the international food safety and how it works against the foodborne diseases. The world Health Organization (WHO) plays a major rule on food safety by publicizing the safety related programs and workshops. Beside bacteria and viruses, Nina also wrote about some other food safety threats such as hormones in milk, overuse of antibiotics in farm animals, genetically engineered plants etc. Risk assessment is a tool that scientists use to reduce the risk of these threats. The foodborne illness/disease most likely happens from the bacteria. DNA “fingerprinting” is one of the best tool that scientists have invented to investigate the foodborne illness.

This replaced the 1994 health and safety outlines and was put forth to improve the inspection and compliance action of R.T.E foods, with respect to their potential to support the growth of this pathogen. This applied to all R.T.E foods, including dairy, produce, fish and seafood, meats and was applied to federally registered and non-registered sectors. 16 This policy was administered in such a way that based on perceived vulnerability to grow Listeria; Ready-to-Eat foods were divided into an assortment of categories. The presence of L. monocytogenes in Category 1 foods poses the highest-risk. This would typically generate a Health 1 concern, where consumers would be made aware that contact with the food will likely produce severe health consequences. 17 In addition, Canada’s policy indicated that any R.T.E food tainted with Listeria, specifically produced for at risk groups, would be considered a Health 2 concern. This would illustrate that some form of health consequence is expected to result from exposure to the contaminated food, especially if it is a vulnerable group coming into contact with it.

The results showed that foods contaminated by these pathogens “caused 9.4 million illnesses, 55,961 hospitalizations, and 1,351 deaths each year” (p. 12).

. This bacteria can be contracted from both humans and animals because of the different toxins that this bacteria releases. This bacteria can be contracted from food and soil. Eating contaminated

There have been several food recalls related to Listeria monocytogenes in the United States this year. As CNN explains, Listeria is a bacterium that can be found in raw meats, produce, and unpasteurized dairy products. It is resistant to moderate heat and cold, so it can survive in a refrigerator. The symptoms of listeriosis are similar to those of influenza, but the illness can be dangerous to infants, the elderly, pregnant women, and anyone with a compromised immune system.

A wide range of food products have been associated with the transmission of listeriosis, primarily milk and dairy products, meat products (cooked chicken, pate, rillettes, sausages, salami), vegetables (coleslaw and rice salads, celery, alfalfa) and, in a lesser degree, fish products (smoked fish, shellfish, shrimp). Generally, these foods have extended shelf life, do not require further cooking and support the growth of the bacterium.

Since the public still concerned that the outbreaks are still continuing, but the health department know that it is a matter of secondary infection. The health department must explain to the public the term “secondary transmission or secondary infection” means. It is known and inevitable part of any foodborne disease that at least one in ten outbreaks may be lead to secondary infection. By “secondary” it means that it not only people who directly consume or in contact with the food that gets hurt, but it transmitted to the surrounding environment which includes family, colleagues, schools and day care.