Food Safety Flashcards
How many people fall sick from foodborne illness? Who is most suseptible?
Estimated 1 in 10 people fall ill from foodborne illness worldwide
600 million illnesses worldwide (1 in 8 canadians)
420,000 deaths per year
* Especially young children
* ⅓ deaths are from children
* Elderly are also susceptible
Common Causes of Foodbonre Illness
The Pathogens
Norovirus
Listeria
Salmonella
E. coli
Campylobacter
May be causes by bacteria, viruses, and parasites
Bacteria are the most common
Who leads the charge in Canadian food safety
CFIA (canadian food inspection agency)
Traceablity
Food Safety
Traceability - Determining the origins and subsequent distribution of contaminated food
Norovirus
Foodborne, but does not originate from animal products
* RNA virus
* Easily transmitted
Transmission:
* Aerosolized vomit, person to person, fecal - oral
* Small infectious dose: 10-20 virions
* “Cruise ship diarrhea”
* Most prevalent strain: Gll.4 Sydney
Symptoms:
* Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea stomach cramps
What is the most common foodborne illness?
Norovirus
* 300/400 outbreaks/yr
* Only outcompeted by the common cold
* #1 cause of vomiting and diarrhea
Sources of Foodborn Pathogens
- Meat and poultry
- Milk
- Fish and seafood
- Fruits, vegetables, cereals
- Ready to eat foods
Salmonella
Bacterial Infection (often foodborne)
* Gram negative rods
* Salmonella enterica & Salmonella bongori
Major cause of foodborne illness worldwide
* Major reservoir in chickens
* #1 bacterial pathogen
Transmission through consumption of contaminated food of animal origin
Widely distributed in domestic and wild animals
Prevalent in food animals
Poultry, pigs, cattle
Prevalent in pets
Cats, dogs, birds, and reptiles like turtles
Disease symptoms (human) occurs 6-72 hours (usually 12-36 hours) after ingestion
Lasts 2-7 days
How do you control Salmonella infection?
Determine the source
* This is tricky because it can be found in many foods
Control Measures are required at all stages of the food chain
* Agricultural production
* Processing, manufacturing, and preparation of foods
Many potential routes of salmonella contamination
* Every step on the farm to fork chain can be a source of contamination
* Animals
* Manufacturing
* Transport Trucks
* Restaurants
* Homes
Which ways can you get salmonella
Person to person
* Fecal-oral route
Contact with infected pets or farm animals
Reptiles and birds
* Petting zoos is big (this is why there are hand wash stations)
Handling contaminated pet foods or pet treats
* Pig ears have done it
Backyard poultry operations have a tendency to cause salmonella
Salmonella is a very common zoonotic disease
E. Coli
Many strains, most are harmless
* Normal intestinal bacterial flora
* Major pathogenic strains include O157 and O121
* The pathogenic strains are linked to shiga toxin
Transmission:
* Consumption of undercooked meat
* Unpasteurized dairy products
* Inadequately washed greens and fruits
* Unpasteurized drinks (things like apple juice)
* Direct contact with contaminated animals in petting farms
* Exposure to contaminated water from potable drinking sources
O157 vs O121
E-coli Strains
O157
* Shigatoxigenic E. coli (STEC)
* Produces shiga toxin
* Not an animal disease issue (only affects humans)
* Incubation period can range from 33 to 8 days (most patients recover within 10 days)
STEC is destroyed by thorough cooking of foods until all parts reach a temperature of 70 degrees celsius or higher
Has a high rate of causing recalls
It’s hard to find where e coli starts
* Takes a long time to definitively determine if it is a O157 outbreak
* 2-3 week time period
O121
Pathogenic E coli strain
* Less common than O157
* Less is known
* Linked to Shiga toxin
Gastroenteritis (stomach flu)
* Watery diarrhea and vomiting
* Intestinal Bleeding
Federal agencies have zero tolerance for these pathogens
Can contaminate flour
* Don’t eat raw flour
* You gotta cook it to inactivate it
* Don’t allow children to eat raw dough products 🙁
Linked to animal feces
Listeriosis
Bacterial infection: Listeria monocytogenes
Relatively rare
* High hospitalization rate (94%)
* 178 people infected with Listeria in Canada/year
Can be treated with antibiotics
High death rate
* Leading cause of death due to food borne illness in Canada
* 260 deaths per year (US)
* 50% of deaths due to food borne illness
Pregnant women 10x more likely to develop listeriosis
* Miscarriages
* Can pass bacteria to offspring
Stores are in the soil and mammalian GI tracts
These both contaminate vegetation
Transmission
Animal to animal transmission occurs via the fecal-oral route
* Dogs and cats don’t seem to get this
* Infectious, but not contagious in humans
* Common in domestic mammals and poultry
Containment
Widespread in the environment
* Needs constant monitoring
Long incubation period (one to two weeks up to 90 days)
* Makes it hard to find the sources
Describe and give causes and clinical symptoms
Campylobacter
**Bacterial: Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli **
* gram (+)
* Comma Shaped
Causes
* Raw or undercooked poultry
* Or consumption of something that touched it
* Contaminated water
* Contact with animals (Pets may also harbour the disease)
* Raw (unpasteurised) milk
Generaly harmless to animals, pathogenic to humans
Clinical Symptoms
* Diarrhea (often bloody), fever, and stomach cramps
Routes of Contamination
Pathogens in Food
- Cross-contamination
- Improper Hand washing
- Inappropriate storage and temperatures
- Contamination by animal waste
Everyone is involved in every step of the way
