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Food Safety

Food safety is a scientific discipline describing handling, preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent foodborne illness. … In this way, food safety often overlaps with food defence to prevent harm to consumers.

Food Safety and E-commerce

Food Safety and E-commerce: Ensuring Safe Handling and Transportation

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

The rise of online food delivery and meal kit services has transformed the food industry. However, this trend has also raised concerns about food safety and the need for regulations to ensure safe handling and transportation of these products. Here are some of the key issues:

Transportation and Mishandling

One of the primary concerns is the potential for food to be mishandled during transportation. Unlike traditional brick-and-mortar stores, e-commerce retailers may use third-party delivery services or contract drivers to deliver food. This lack of control over the delivery process can increase the risk of contamination, temperature abuse, and mishandling of products.

Temperature Control

Temperature control is another important issue. Many food products require specific temperature conditions to prevent spoilage and contamination. However, temperature control during transportation can be challenging, especially during hot summer months or in areas with extreme weather conditions.

Packaging and Labels

The use of packaging materials and labels can also impact food safety. It is essential to use appropriate packaging that is safe for food contact and to ensure that labels accurately reflect the product’s contents and handling requirements.

Regulations and Guidelines

The lack of clear regulations for e-commerce food safety has led to calls for improved standards and guidelines. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has released guidance for food safety during transportation, highlighting the need for temperature control, proper packaging, and effective communication between all parties involved in the delivery process. Similarly, the World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized the importance of food safety regulations in e-commerce, calling for clear guidelines to be developed to address the unique challenges of online food delivery.

Industry Responses

In response to these concerns, some e-commerce food retailers have implemented their own safety measures. For instance, some companies have introduced tamper-proof packaging, GPS tracking, and real-time temperature monitoring during transportation.

Conclusion

E-commerce food delivery services offer significant benefits to consumers, but they also present unique food safety challenges. There is a need for clear regulations and guidelines to ensure safe handling and transportation of food products. Consumers must be aware of the potential risks and take steps to protect themselves, such as checking labels and reporting any safety concerns. By working together, regulators, retailers, and consumers can ensure that e-commerce food delivery services continue to provide safe and convenient options for all.

Useful Links

  1. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance on food safety during transportation: https://www.fda.gov/food/guidance-documents-regulatory-information/guidance-industry-food-safety-modernization-act-focus-transportation-food
  2. World Health Organization (WHO) report on e-commerce and food safety: https://www.who.int/publications-detail/e-commerce-and-food-safety
  3. Food Safety News article on e-commerce and food safety: https://www.foodsafetynews.com/2018/04/e-commerce-food-safety-challenges-opportunities-and-regulatory-responses/
  4. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) guidelines on e-commerce and food safety: http://www.fao.org/3/i8606en/i8606en.pdf
  5. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) information on foodborne illness: https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/index.html

These resources provide additional information and guidance on food safety in e-commerce, as well as general food safety practices and regulations.

10 Basic Kitchen Hygiene Rules To Follow

10 Basic Kitchen Hygiene Rules To Follow

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

Kitchen hygiene during food preparation in the kitchen is essential to everyone’s health. Whether its at home, a commercial kitchen, catering, or a food factory. Kitchen hygiene forms the basis for any food safety system. 

What are the 10 Basic kitchen hygiene rules?

1. Keep your hand clean (Kitchen hygiene rule 101):

Keeping your hands clean and germ-free is at the top of the kitchen hygiene rules list. It’s easy for bacteria to be transferred from raw foods to your hands to everywhere else in the kitchen, so wash your hands throughout food prep and before and after cooking food. This also includes personal hygiene, meaning keeping fingernails short and clean. Clean and appropriate uniforms and fitness for work. 

2. Cook your foods to completion

One of the most important kitchen hygiene rules is to ensure food is cooked properly. If undercooked, harmful bacteria could lead to food poisoning. High temperatures (+70°C) are the best way to kill harmful bacteria such as E.coli, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogenes. Keeping foods above 60°C during serving is also legally required. (R638)

3. Storing foods safely 

It is absolutely vital to store food properly to keep it safe from harmful bacteria, chemicals, and objects falling into food. In other words, preventing cross-contamination. This effectively means keeping raw foods away from foods that are ready to eat.  Make sure leftovers or open food packets are covered with cling film or sealed in a plastic container. Keep your fridge tidy and dispose of any items that are out of date.

You’ll need to store the various food groups in different different areas. This means you’ll need:

  • Sealable containers to keep dry goods in cupboards or on the shelves – such as pasta, rice, and flour
  • A fridge to keep your foods fresh for a long as possible.
  • A freezer to keep foods for longer periods of time. 

4. Clean-as-you-go 

Keeping kitchen counter tops and food equipment clean after every use is one of the easiest (and most essential) basic kitchen hygiene rules. You’ll not only be keeping things clean and tidy, you’ll be stopping the spread of bacteria. Using the correct chemicals here is also essential. Remember we cannot see bacteria. Regular cleaning and sanitising will ensure a clean and germ free environment. 

5. Kitchen hygiene rules: don’t cross-contaminate

If you’ve ever had food poisoning, you’ll understand why avoiding cross-contamination is high on the list of basic kitchen hygiene rules. Use different cutting boards for preparing fish, meat, veg, dairy, or bread (different colour boards can help with this), and never prepare or keep ready-to-eat foods near or next to raw meats and vegetables. These simple kitchen hygiene tips will help avoid the spread of potentially dangerous bacteria.

6. Cutting Boards are critical areas

Bits of food left on a cutting board will soon breed bacteria, so scrubbing down your board immediately after use is vital to stop them from spreading. Quick, easy, and essential, cleaning and sanitising cutting boards is one of the most essential kitchen hygiene rules.

7.Clean your fridge regularly

Ensuring your fridge is clean is one of the top 10 kitchen hygiene rules in t for good reason. Left alone, spills and spoiled food will spread bacteria to everything else, so clean out the fridge and dispose of expired food on a weekly basis. 

8. Basins need a clean too

Your wash and rinse basins are used regularly throughout the day, so it’ll become grimy and covered in bacteria quickly if it’s not kept clean. Again, this is one of those kitchen hygiene rules that doesn’t take much time, but that is well worth doing: just give your sink a quick scrub with a scourer and a spritz of cleaner and sanitiser once a day. 

9. Grease build-up is problematic

Greasy surfaces or pots and pans are able to prevent proper sanitising from taking place. Bacteria are able to hide behind greasy areas, allowing them to survive. Always clean with a clean cloth and multi-purpose cleaner to remove the greasy layer, before using a suitable surface sanitiser.  

10. Kitchen bins are germ havens

Regularly changing your bin is a key aspect of kitchen hygiene. Old food in a bin will soon decompose and bacteria will start to form. Not to mention the bad odours and on occasion the little white squirmy maggots! 

Pro tip: 

Food Handlers training

By law, food business operators must ensure that food handlers receive the appropriate training in kitchen hygiene and food safety, which is in line with the area they work in and will enable them to handle food in the safest way. 

The required training includes:

world food safety day 2021

World Food Safety Day 2021

Reading Time: 3 minutes

World Food Safety Day (WFSD) celebrated on 7 June 2021 aims to draw attention and inspire action to help prevent, detect and manage foodborne risks, contributing to food security, human health, economic prosperity, agriculture, market access, tourism and sustainable development.  

At Hygiene Food Safety our focus is on creating awareness on hygiene and food safety through education. Without knowledge, there can be no understanding of food safety. Our call to action has been to spread the word about food safety. #worldfoodsafetyday

Food Safety can be defined as handling, preparing and storing food or drink in a way that best reduces the risk of consumers becoming sick from the food-borne disease. The principles of food safety aim to prevent food from becoming contaminated and causing food poisoning. With this in mind, ensuring that food is safe for human consumption is likely the most critical part of the food preparation process. This ranges from what is called farm to fork, meaning from the farms all the way to your plate. Check out our article on the food production chain and the possible ways contamination can happen.

This year’s theme, ‘Safe food today for a healthy tomorrow’, stresses that production and consumption of safe food has immediate and long-term benefits for people, the planet and the economy. Recognizing the systemic connections between the health of people, animals, plants, the environment and the economy will help us meet the needs of the future.

Recognizing the global burden of foodborne diseases, which affect individuals of all ages, in particular children under-5 and persons living in low-income countries, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed in 2018 that every 7 June would be World Food Safety Day. In 2020, the World Health Assembly further passed a resolution to strengthen global efforts for food safety to reduce the burden of foodborne disease. WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly facilitate the observance of World Food Safety Day, in collaboration with Member States and other relevant organizations.

Food safety is a shared responsibility between governments, producers and consumers.  Everyone has a role to play from farm to table to ensure the food we consume is safe and healthy. Through the World Food Safety Day, WHO works to mainstream food safety in the public agenda and reduce the burden of foodborne diseases globally. Food safety is everyone’s business.

World Food Safety Day Facts

  • An estimated 600 million – almost 1 in 10 people in the world – fall ill after eating contaminated food and 420 000 die every year, resulting in the loss of 33 million healthy life years (DALYs).
  • US$110 billion is lost each year in productivity and medical expenses resulting from unsafe food in low- and middle-income countries.
  • Children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 125 000 deaths every year.
  • Diarrhoeal diseases are the most common illnesses resulting from the consumption of contaminated food, causing 550 million people to fall ill and 230 000 deaths every year.

Pathogenic Bacteria

  • Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli are among the most common foodborne pathogens that affect millions of people annually – sometimes with severe and fatal outcomes. Symptoms are fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhoea. Examples of foods involved in outbreaks of salmonellosis are eggs, poultry and other products of animal origin. Foodborne cases with Campylobacter are mainly caused by raw milk, raw or undercooked poultry and drinking water. Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli is associated with unpasteurized milk, undercooked meat and fresh fruits and vegetables. 
  • Listeria infection leads to miscarriage in pregnant women or death of newborn babies. Although disease occurrence is relatively low, listeria’s severe and sometimes fatal health consequences, particularly among infants, children and the elderly, count them among the most serious foodborne infections. Listeria is found in unpasteurised dairy products and various ready-to-eat foods and can grow at refrigeration temperatures.
  • Vibrio cholerae infects people through contaminated water or food. Symptoms include abdominal pain, vomiting and profuse watery diarrhoea, which may lead to severe dehydration and possibly death. Rice, vegetables, millet gruel and various types of seafood have been implicated in cholera outbreaks.

Food Viruses

Norovirus infections are characterized by nausea, explosive vomiting, watery diarrhoea and abdominal pain. Hepatitis A virus can cause long-lasting liver disease and spreads typically through raw or undercooked seafood or contaminated raw produce. Infected food handlers are often the source of food contamination.

The burden of foodborne diseases

The burden of foodborne diseases to public health and welfare and to economies has often been underestimated due to underreporting and difficulty to establish causal relationships between food contamination and resulting illness or death.

The 2015 WHO report on the estimates of the global burden of foodborne diseases presented the first-ever estimates of disease burden caused by 31 foodborne agents (bacteria, viruses, parasites, toxins and chemicals) at global and regional level.

The 2018 World Bank report on the economic burden of the foodborne diseases indicated that the total productivity loss associated with foodborne disease in low- and middle-income countries was estimated to cost US$ 95.2 billion per year, and the annual cost of treating foodborne illnesses is estimated at US$ 15 billion.

In Celebration of World Food Safety Day

We are offering our course on our training website for free. We believe that such a great occasion should be celebrated with providing education on food safety. In staying with this year’s theme: Food Safety, Everyone’s Business. We are giving away our course “Food Safety for the Kitchen” for free. Enjoy!

New Listeria Species Discovered

New Listeria Species Discovered: What Does This Mean For Food Safety?

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

A new species of Listeria has been discovered by Scientists from Cornell University. Five previously unknown species of Listeria have been added to the list. The most infamous of the genus you may recognise; Listeria monocytogenes, an opportunistic pathogen that causes listeriosis. A food-borne illness affecting several processed foods.

Where was the new Listeria species discovered?

While examining the prevalence of listeria in agricultural soil throughout the U.S., Cornell food scientists have stumbled upon five previously unknown and novel relatives of the bacteria, according to new research published May 17 in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

The discovery, researchers said, will help food facilities identify potential growth niches that until now, may have been overlooked – thus improving food safety.

Listeria are notoriously difficult to remove from the food factory. They are persistent, able to resist chemical treatment and grow is difficult to reach areas, whilst being able to grow well as refrigeration temperatures.

“This research increases the set of listeria species monitored in food production environments,” said lead author Catharine R. Carlin, a doctoral student in food science. “Expanding the knowledge base to understand the diversity of listeria will save the commercial food world confusion and errors, as well as prevent contamination, explain false positives and thwart foodborne outbreaks.”

What makes the new species unique?

One of the novel species, L. immobilis, lacked motility, or the ability to move.  Listeria move a lot. Among scientists, motility was thought to be common among listeria closely related to L. monocytogenes, a well-known food-borne pathogen – and used as a key test in listeria detection methods. This discovery effectively calls for a rewrite of the standard identification protocols issued by food safety regulators, Carlin said.

“This paper describes some unique characteristics of listeria species that are closely related to Listeria monocytogenes, which will be important from an evolutionary perspective and from a practical standpoint for the food industry,” said co-author Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. ’97, the Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety and Food Science. “Likely, some tests will need to be re-evaluated.”

After naming L. immobilis to reflect this organism’s non-motile characteristic, three of the other species were named to honor other listeria researchers:

  • L. cossartiae for Pascale Cossart, a bacteriologist at the Pasteur Institute of Paris;
  • L. farberi for Jeff Farber, a microbiologist at the at the University of Guelph, Canada; and
  • L. portnoyii for Daniel Portnoy, a microbiologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

The species L. rustica was taken from the Latin word “rusticus” and signifies its rural origin. 

The research further supports the need to separate testing of Listeria species from the specific detection of Listeria monocytogenes.

The new study was published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

Source: Cornell University

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