Prevent Food Poisoning - Follow Safe Practices

Seventy-six million Americans will suffer a Food poisoning episode this year. Three hundred thousand victims will require hospitalization, and Food poisoning will kill about five thousand. A large percenTAGe of these poisonings could be prevented by following the very basic practices of food hygiene for keeping food clean, and keeping food handlers clean.

The majority of food poisoning episodes are caused by viruses or bacteria. These are commonly spread by particles of animal or human excreMent, by bodily fluids such as blood and urine, and by dirt that sticks to animal carcasses and to fruits and vegetables. When animal manure is used as fertilizer for fruits and vegetables, the risk of contamination is increased. Harvesting crops and transporting animals and crops offer other opportunities for exposure.

Both meat and poultry processors and plants that handle fruits and vegetables have industry-wide standards for cleanliness and safety. Plants that follow these standards greatly reduce the risk of food poisoning. When food safety inspectors follow up on contamination and food poisoning reports, they usually find serious lapses in hygiene. In January 2009, Salmonella contamination of peanut butter and other peanut-based products required a nationwide recall. Health inspectors who tracked the contaminated products back to the processing plants found appalling failures in basic sanitation, including a leaking roof, molds, fungus, bird feathers, dead cockroaches rodent droppings and dead rodents.

Both the Food and Drug Administration and the US DepartMent of Agriculture urge farms and food processors to maintain their own industry-approved standards for cleanliness and safety.

Food handlers in institutional kitchens, restaurants, and retail grocery stores have an equally strong mandate to maintain good food hygiene. In these settings, anyone who handles, prepares, or serves food should always practice sound food safety procedures. The keystone of those procedures is also the simplest: wash your hands. Anyone involved in any part of food preparation and food service should wash both hands thoroughly and scrub under fingernails before touching food. Hand-washing is even more important after using the bathroom. If a food handler has an eye infection or an upper respiratory infection, or cuts on Wrists or hands, that person should not handle food at all until the illness or infection is over, or the cuts healed.

When a worker moves to a different kind of food, especially from raw food to cooked, or poultry to fruits or salad greens or other raw vegetables, they should wash their hands thoroughly before touching the new food.

Utensils, knives, pots and pans, work surfaces and anything else that comes into contact with food should also be cleaned as thoroughly as you'd wash your hands.

Cold food stored longer than two hours, cold foods should be refrigerated at temperatures lower than 40°. Keep hot food at 140° higher. Store cooked food in wide, shallow containers that will allow heat to dissipate, and refrigerate promptly.

Kitchens that follow these commonsense practices will greatly reduce the risk of food poisoning. A restaurant, store, or institutional food server who fails to follow these practices may be found guilty of negligence. If you or a loved one has suffered a serious food-poisoning episode, and you believe negligence was involved, you should consult an experienced food safety attorney to determine whether you have an actionable claim.

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