Understand Foodborne Illnesses

illnesses is very serious and is not only spread through human interaction with the food, since

Over the years there have been various cases of foodborne illnesses. As humans we tend to try a variety of foods because of our own particular interest. For example, those that may travel out of the United States may be prone to consuming exotic foods that they aren’t typically used to consuming. There have been multiple recommendations to protect one from becoming infected with foodborne illnesses. Many foodborne illnesses are definitely harmful to the body and if the situation isn’t treated by a healthcare professional, death may be the end of result. Foodborne illnesses occur from parasites becoming into contact with the foods we eat, thus putting the human population at risk. When foodborne illnesses are discovered, healthcare officials does a great job with acknowledging the general public of precautions and measures that should be taken.

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

Contamination may happen at any stage of food production, from seed and soil to packaging and cooking. Meat may be contaminated by inadequate storage or poor hygiene. Cross contamination can happen through raw meat. Pathogens can still be present in food due to food that is insufficiently warm. Food should only be reheated once, and drinking water could also be contaminated, although there are hygiene controls to prevent

Foodborne illness, or food poisoning, happens everyday in the U.S. and it is estimated that 48 million people are affected by it every year. Of these 48 million, 128,000 end up in the hospital and 3000 of them die from foodborne pathogens (Tucker, 2014). Foodborne illnesses can be caused by biological, chemical, or physical contaminants. The biological contaminants consist of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi. Chemical contaminants are pesticides, cleaning supplies, and toxic chemicals. Physical contaminations are dirt, glass, wood, splinters, stones, hair, jewelry, and metal shavings (Tucker, 2014). Salmonella, a bacterium, has been the most common reported cause of food poisoning. Salmonella is most commonly exposed to humans through animal feces and it is usually from animals that give us beef, poultry, and dairy products. People who do not wash their hands after being around animals can also transmit salmonella into our food. The symptoms of Salmonella are abdominal cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and fever (Tucker, 2014). The symptoms will usually resolve on their own in healthy people but may become life threatening in those with compromised immune systems. In order to prevent Salmonellosis, raw eggs should be avoided, as well as undercooked meat, shellfish, and unpasteurized milk and juice (Tucker, 2014). It is also important to always practice hand hygiene before handling any uncooked food products. Escherichia Coli, otherwise known as E. coli, is

Food hygiene is very important to prevent cross contamination. If strict guidelines are not adhered to in the handling of food serious illness can be caused.

 What is the infectious agent (pathogen) that causes this infectious disease? For example, the name of the bacteria, virus, or parasite.

Norovirus and Salmonella are the two most common pathogens, resulting in the most hospitalizations and deaths. Norovirus is a pathogen that infects the stomach and intestines by causing inflammation. Symptoms of norovirus include; nausea/vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain leading to dehydration causing one to urinate more frequently and feel dizzy while standing up. In order to avoid contracting the Norovirus, the CDC recommends thoroughly washing fruits, vegetables and cooking seafood to appropriate temperatures, which can survive up to 140 degrees Fahrenheit (https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/preventing-infection.html). Salmonella affects the gastrointestinal tract when bacteria is swallowed, mainly coming from raw food products; eggs,

Food borne illness is a big issue in the United States. Each year up to 5,000 people die from foodborne illness… something that plays a role in foodborne illness is boxing labels such as expiration dates. Another thing that is another big part in foodborne illness is the way it processed or cooked. When the government monitors food safety, there are fewer foodborne illnesses that make people sick.

Foodborne illnesses is an important problem in the United States, which cause a total of 19,056 infections, 4,200 hospitalizations, and 80 deaths were reported in 2013. Moreover, foodborne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion per year in healthcare (Scharff, 2010; CDC, 2014). E. coli O157 belonged Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), it was usually classified pathotypically as enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) (Bryan et al., 2015). Between 2000 and 2010 have 5688 cases of O157 STEC infections were reported by FoodNet sentinel states, while the rate of O157 STEC infection decreased from 2.17 to 0.95 per 100,000 (Gould et al., 2013). By the way, Magwedere et al. (2013) also reported retail ground meat samples were purchased at grocery stores, local farmers’ markets, and online vendors, out of 16 ground chicken samples, 7 samples tested positive for O157 STEC. On the other hand, E. coli also causes diverse extraintestinal infections by uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC), urinary tract infections (UTI) is a good example to illustrate. The economic burden associated with urinary tract infections is estimated to be approximately 1.5 billion in the United States annually. According to previous studies, the food animal and meat reservoir might exist and isolate from retail chicken meat products for UPEC (Jakobsen et al., 2010; Shortlidge et al., 2013; Natalie et al., 2015). In recent research suggested UPEC besides the ability to

A mother of a young child called the Vermont Department on February 5 to report the possibility of a foodborne disease outbreak after her child aged 5 years and two other children of her neighbor aged 7 and 10 years became ill with a lot of vomiting and diarrhea that took place within an interval of 12 hours. The child’s sickness became severe that the mother took her to a local hospital where she was kept at the emergency department.

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.

Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from food being spoiled, not properly cooked, or contaminated. Examples of the organisms in these types of food are pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and toxins, these organisms are caused by contaminants ranging from biological to chemical to physical. Biological contaminants such as pathogenic bacteria, can be caused by under cooked food, or can be spread by workers who do not properly wash their hands. Chemical contaminants are cleaning materials that have worked their way into the food during the cooking process, the cooling process, setting on the line or in any scenario where there are chemicals involved there is a risk of chemical contamination. Physical contaminants are any foreign objects that can get

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that can cause food poisoning. Even though the main way to come in contact with salmonella

Food is an essential constituent in human life. Nevertheless, some foods can be detrimental to a person’s organism by causing life-threatening diseases. For that reason, food safety comes into play. Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling,