Food safety is one of the most critical aspects of handling food production, storage, preparation, and service. The cost of not handling food properly is estimated to be in the thousands of dollars to employers and/or employees in the United States. The "consumer" is most aware of food poisoning problems.

Millions of people in the US. each year are made ill from the consumption of what they believe to be safe food . Thousands die. While our country has some of the least contaminated food in the world, foodborne and waterborne illness cases due to pathogenic bacteria, viruses, parasites, and chemicals/toxins in food cause approximately 25,000,000 illness and 16,000 deaths annually. The problem costs the food industry billions of dollars each year. one reason for this increasing problem is that the FDA and USDA do not require industry pre-control of hazards and do not provide and enforce rules in food operations that pinpoint the hazards. Nor do they provide research-proven control procedures.

The first line of food safety and sanitation defense is production, processing and preparation of food. The industry, both commercial food processing and food service, has developed HACCP. Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points and offers a process for prevention of food infection and poisoning and physical safety.

Another aspect of food safety is in the realm of sanitation. In the United States, there are probably several million cases of food borne illness which occur each year. It is estimated that only a small number are reported. It is important foundation of sanitary practices for the future. Sanitation pertains to both the cleanliness and wholesomeness of the food. It is important that sanitary practices are used at each stage of food production and processing. There are a number of different places where poor sanitation can be critical for food poisoning. The foodservice personnel may not have control of all the points of food safety sanitation; however, they can control those points which they are in contact.

There are 3 ways that result in food safety problems:

1. ILLNESS CAUSED THROUGH TRANSMISSION OF DISEASE GERMS. The food may transmit pathogenic germs are passed from person to person through soiled objects such as money, doorknobs, railings, common drinking cups and the like. Food serves as a mere vehicle of disease transmission. Transmission of animal pathogens to humans by way of food is also possible.

2. FOOD POISONINGS AND FOOD INFECTIONS CAUSED BY BACTERIA. The terms food poisoning and food infections refers to a violent illness of the stomach and intestinal tract (known as gastroenteritis) following the consumption of the offending food. The offending food contains, in general, high numbers of bacteria that are capable of producing the gastroenteritis suffered by the victim. Some of the pathogens are able to release toxins into the food; these toxins are the direct cause of the illness (an intoxication). Other pathogens do not act until swallowed, where upon they cause an infection of the gastrointestinal tract.

3. FOOD POISONING CAUSED BY AGENTS OTHER THAN MICROORGANISMS. The offending food contains poisonous chemicals, or the food is poisonous plant or animal. Examples would be tuna and mercury, apple and alar, cranberry and unpasteurized fruit juices.

The following schematic indicates the flow of food health problems.

There are a lot of different ways that food poisoning is transmitted, and we are concerned that the foodservice personnel do not transmit this. There are some basic principles to avoid transmission. Do not handle food if handlers have a contagious disease and all food handlers must observe the rules of personal hygiene. They must thoroughly wash their hands after they sneeze or cough and of course, after they visit the toilet. It's very important, of course, that any time non-food items, such as food utensils, are handled that the hands be washed. An added possibility, of course, and added defense is that in addition to washing their hands, that plastic gloves are used when food itself is handled.

The necessity of having sanitary facilities is something that you will need to be cognizant of in any foodservice area that you are responsible for, avoiding rodents and insects is very important.

Equipment and utensils used in food preparation and service must be maintained in a sanitary condition.

Thus, let's go back and look at some of the food safety and sanitation practices that you can use in the laboratory or in the foodservice operation.

The #1 defense, of course, is washing your hands. You should have a special place where you wash your hands with soap, with hot water and, of course, with individual towels or other hand-drying equipment that is not used repetitively. In our laboratory situation, paper towels or hand blowers may be used.

In addition to the employee coming to the foodservice operation clean, healthy and appropriately attired; that is, in addition to clothes that are only used in the foodservice operation, they must wear a hair net to keep all of their hair underneath, the operation itself should be kept clean. This is done by cleaning spills and removing garbage, and cleaning up the spills, so that the surfaces are clean and sanitary. One in particular we just want to emphasize, is the cleaning of chopping boards.

Once the food has been prepared under sanitary conditions, it's important to keep the hot food hot and keep the cold food cold. As you can see from this thermometer, there are areas or zones at which any bacteria in the food will be allowed to grow rapidly and lead to food borne illness.

Principles of Control of Disease Transmission through Food:

1. Persons ill with, or carriers of, contagious diseases must not handle food.

2. All food handlers must observe the rules of personal hygiene. They must thoroughly wash their hands after a sneeze or cough and after visiting the toilet.

3. The food supply should come from an uncontaminated source.

4. Rodents and insects must be strictly controlled in foodservice establishments. NO pet visits.

5. Equipment and utensils used in food preparation and service must be maintained in a sanitary condition at all times.

This does not begin to cover all the different aspects of food safety and sanitation. Throughout your career, new knowledge and new information will become available. You must be cognizant always of not only the regulations requiring food safety and sanitation, but you must be constantly alert to be on the leading edge of knowledge and changes in food safety and sanitation.

HACCP refers to Hazard Analysis of Critical Control Points. It increasingly has been mandated by the food processing and food service industry. The appropriate implementation of these principles can tremendously decrease the potential of accidents and food poisoning and infection for the industry. There are a number of principles and factors that must be taken into account when developing the HACCP procedures. This course will increasingly discuss and implement HACCP procedures during the laboratory period.

There are equipment safety issues and problems. Following are some guidelines one should use.

• the analysis of hazards and risks



What is HACCP? HACCP is a science-based, industry-managed process control approach to safety. It is applicable to nuclear reactors, chemical process plants, and occupational safety as it is to food safety. It begins with a systematic analysis of all process steps in a production system in order to acquire detailed knowledge of each step. The analysis is then applied to the product steps to determine the points at which threats can become hazards. It then establishes safety-assured policies, procedures, and standards in order to eliminate threats and make procedures extremely stable. In the case of food operations, it ensures that each food product is safe then consumed. Microbiological, chemical and hard foreign object contamination in food products, as well as other food safety problems, can be kept at a safe level or eliminated when HACCP is applied. Aside from meeting consumers' food safety needs and quality it satisfies the food industry's vital purpose for implementing HACCP-based pre-control programs is to prevent customer litigation and the disaster of public notoriety in case of a foodborne illness incident or outbreak.



• determining of critical control points where loss of control may result in risk.

Functional Steps in setting up a HACCP Plan. 1. Assemble HACCP Teams Examples: Food Service Director, Food Service lead person (Supervisor), Infectious Control Nurse, Engineering person assigned to Food Service, Locl County or City Sanitarian, Purchasing Department Representative. 2. Describe the Food and Its Distribution 3. Identify Intended Use and Consumers Patient- (immune compromised [no raw foods not peeled, etc.], non-compromised; Cafeteria - mixed group with some unknown compromised customers; Catering, Etc.- mixed group with some unknown compromised customers.



• monitoring each critical control point on a set schedule



HACCP RECIPE DEVELOPMENT The recipe must pass the following tests: Customer/patient satisfaction with flavor, texture, aroma, appearance. Balanced nutrient profile. Meets cost restrains (add more carbohydrates and reduce meat to reduce cost). Fit constraints of the kitchen size and equipment. Within the capabilities of the employees and is optimized for simplicity with the least number of ingredients and steps. Conserves energy and nutrients. Microbiologically, chemically, and hard foreign object-safe for customers who will be immune-compromised (note that salads, milk, instant potatoes, etc. will have much higher counts than cooked pasteurized products (1,000,000 APC/g vs. <50 PC/g). If an ingredient becomes too expensive of if the quality decreases, do not be afraid to substitute another recipe. Recipe development Establish a QC employee taste panel. Establish a customer/patient recipe satisfaction evaluation procedure. Select a recipe and do no an analysis to be sure that in will meet all tests. Convert ingredients to weight %. Decide on ingredient, including micro biological, specifications. Meat, poultry, fish microbiology (10,000 APC/g) .................................................................... <100 Coliform ..................................................................... <10 E. coli ..................................................................... <100 Staphylococcus aureus Vegetables, fish................................... <10,000 APC/g Dried ingredient................................... <10,000 APC/g Control ingredients such as tomato paste for recipe consistency. If cooked to 130-160F, be ready for enzyme deterioration of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. If cooked to >180F/83.3C, enzymes will be denatured, but there will still be slow chemical quality loss.




establishing corrective action if a deviation occurs at a critical control point

keeping adequate records so that the source of problems can be effectively traced.