FOOD

BORNE
ILLNESS
 Foodborne illness is caused by consuming
contaminated foods or beverages. Many different
disease causing microbes and pathogens can
contaminate foods so there are many types of
foodborne illnesses. Most of these are infections
caused by a variety of bacteria, viruses and parasites.
Others are poisoning caused by harmful toxins or
chemicals that have contaminated foods. People have
always gotten sick from food but with our increase knowledge from pathogens
transmission and our ability to determine the source of an illness, it can help
prevent such incident from happening. Some causes of food borne illness are
improper cooking temperature of potentially hazardous food, dirty or
contaminated equipment and utensils, poor sanitation or improper hygiene, and
foods from unsafe sources.

a.) Pre – harvest

When food is being grown in a farm it may be irrigated with water

unknowingly contaminated with animal waste that ran into the lake that's used
for irrigation. This food is contaminated during the growing process. Pre –
harvest contamination has various potential sources including soil, animal
intrusion, contaminated harvesting equipment, handling, storage conditions, and
more.

b.) Post-harvest

For foods of animal origin, contamination with disease causing bacteria may
occur at a time of slaughter or shortly thereafter. That's when bacteria in the
animal's intestinal tract, such as salmonella, can get on the surface of the product.
Harmful bacteria such as salmonella often colonized the intestinal tract of an
animal and in turn, get on the animal's skin or feathers. When the animal is
slaughtered, these bacteria can contaminate the surface of the raw meat or
poultry. Foods such as deli meat and hotdogs can also be contaminated in
factories by microorganisms such as Listeria which can live in the factory
environment.

c.) Final processing (Serving food)

 The cause of food contamination occurs as a result of how food is handled
before being served of purchased. For example, the owner of a catering business
takes thawed chicken out of the refrigerator to prepare it for cooking. She places it on the
countertop to de-skin it prior to cooking. She gets busy and forgets to clean the
countertop. After cooking the chicken, she places it back on the unwashed countertop to
cool and cut up. She leaves it there for 4hrs before returning it to the refrigerator,
allowing the foodborne bacteria to multiply. The next day, she served her chicken in her
famous cold chicken salad sandwich appetizers. Also, if contaminated water is used to
wash fruits, vegetables or other materials for cooking then contamination can
spread to it.

Foodborne illness is entirely preventable.

During the past century in the US, our public
health predecessors and the food industry have
successfully reduced or eliminated the burden of
many foodborne pathogens, such as Typhoid
fever. The burden of these foodborne diseases
was reduced through the combined effort of
better sanitation, public health surveillance and
outbreak investigation, and food processing improvements such as
pasteurization, refrigeration and freezing, commercial canning procedures, and
the implementation of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP). In
some instances, development of vaccines has played a role in reducing disease
incidence.

In addition, food borne pathogens' production can be reduced through 4

easy steps: Clean, Separate, Cook and Chill. It a must that we wash our hands
and surfaces often, avoid cross-contamination, cook meals to proper
temperatures and refrigerate foods promptly.

Everyone can easily acquire food borne illness. However, people who are
prone to have food borne illness or more likely to become ill includes young
children and the elderly or those who have illnesses that reduce their resistance
to an infection, such as HIV or cancer, etc. Older adults, pregnant woman,
newborns and young children are among the most vulnerable to foodborne
illnesses as well as the people with compromised immune systems are also at
high risk.
 “Food system production includes all processes and infrastructure involved in
feeding a population such as growing, harvesting, processing, packaging,
transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food and food-related
items.”

The first evidence of human food production emerges during the Neolithic
Era around 9500 BC. Prior to then, humans are thought not to have used
agriculture, but were hunter-gatherers sharing limited amounts of food among
small, geographically dispersed groups.

With the advent of agriculture, food was available in sufficient quantities to

sustain human settlements. However, as these settlements grew, so did the
potential threat of disease transmission from interaction among humans,
increases in human waste, and an ever-growing need for more livestock.
Undoubtedly, many of these diseases were foodborne pathogens.

During the following centuries, agriculture improvements allowed for an

increase in the scale of the food system. And it was the industrial revolution that
brought about a whole new food production paradigm. One of the key elements
in this new model was transportation. Investments in railroads and canals made
it faster and more efficient to move food from the field to a central processing
facility. As a result, food grown out in the Great Plains of the US could be
shipped to Chicago or New York for processing and then out to the populous
retail markets before spoilage. Today our food production system is global in
scale and vastly complex

Individual Financial Implications

 Lost wages or Jobs

 Medical Costs
 Physical Disability

Industry Financial Impact

 Food Recall
 Reduced Consumer Demand
 Improve Safety Process
 Lawsuits
 Imposed Fines
 Marketing Efforts