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Food Poisoning

Food poisoning can be defined as the illness caused by consuming food or drink that has been contaminated by one of three sources; biological, chemical or physical.

ask a chef - cockroaches in the kitchen

Things you should never ask a chef

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Reading Time: < 1 minute

The food network just released a survey on things that chefs never tell you, and probably some questions you should never ask a chef… Most of the survey overlooks the fact that there are some seriously bad common practices in the kitchen, which tells us there is a lot still to learn, when it comes to hygiene and food safety.

Below are some key points that stood out for me:

  1. Roaches are more common than you think.
    Yes, 75% of chefs said they’ve seen roaches in the kitchen. And yet, chefs swear their kitchens are clean. On a scale of 1 to 10, 85% of chefs ranked their kitchens an 8 or higher for cleanliness.
  2. That rule about not ordering fish on Sunday might be worth following.
    Several chefs warned, “We don’t get fresh deliveries on Sunday.”
  3. The five-second rule actually applies.
    A quarter of the chefs surveyed said they’d pick up food that dropped on the floor and cook it.

In reality most kitchens rank between 5 – 7 out of 10 for hygiene and food safety. The fact that cockroaches are present in the kitchen is likely a lot higher, and yet the least of the kitchen’s problems. Sunday is not the only day of the week not providing “fresh” ingredients, and surprisingly food dropping on the floor isn’t the worst thing a kitchen can do…

What are the food safety pillars?

How To Reduce The Risk Of Food Poisoning woman feeling ill in bed

What You Should Know About How To Reduce The Risk Of Food Poisoning

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Reading Time: 3 minutes

In understanding bacteria and how they grow and survive, we can begin to identify what is needed to prevent the growth of bacteria and how to reduce the risk of food poisoning.

What is Food Safety / Food Hygiene?

Food Safety is defined as handling, preparing and storing food in a way that reduces the risk of individuals becoming sick from food-borne illnesses. These risks include contamination from biological, physical or chemical sources.

Food safety systems or food hygiene programs are designed to minimise these risks.We need at least one of the below requirements and ideally a combination of each in order to ensure sufficient compliance:

  1. Sufficiently high temperature
  2. Chemicals or sanitiser
  3. pH, meaning high acidity or high alkalinity
  4. Reducing time of exposure. Remember that time, affects all of the previously mentioned requirements.

Because time is a key factor, we need to also consider the bacteriological growth curve

  1. The lag phase is a slow growth at first while bacteria acclimatises to the food and nutrients in the new habitat.
  2. The log phase is where bacteria start to multiply exponentially doubling in number every few minutes.
  3. The stationary phase is where bacteria start competing for dwindling resources and the number of bacteria stabilises.
  4. The death phase is where toxic waste products start to build up. The food for bacteria is depleted and bacteria starts to die off.
bacteria growth curve

How does knowing this reduce the risk of food poisoning?

By knowing these factors, we can begin to understand why bacteria grow in our foods. By controlling these factors, we can begin to stop bacteria from growing in our food environment and therefore reduce the risk of food poisoning.

The amount of bacteria in foods is dependent on the quality of the ingredients used, the storage of the final products, the distribution of bacteria in food, the availability of nutrients as well as the stage of growth at which bacteria is in. And ultimately preventing any possible opportunity for cross-contamination to take place.

How do we stop bacteria from growing?

We already know that we cannot see bacteria with the naked eye and there is no day-to-day indication that bacteria is growing in our food and within your kitchen. Of even more concern is that we cannot see a pathogen is present within our foods. Remember no taste, smell or discolouration.

Therefore, we need to be able to put systems into place in order to minimise and prevent bacteria from getting into our foods and therefore reduce the risk. Fortunately, years of research on the understanding of how bacteria grow and survive have allowed us to develop systems that can effectively prevent food poisoning from taking place.

So how do we use this knowledge to develop a system that prevents bacteria from growing?

The Food Safety Pillars

The food safety pillars are designed from understanding all the factors that allow bacteria to grow. We can now apply this knowledge as well as the understanding of how food is prepared and categorised each step that reduce the risk of food poisoning into pillars that create the foundation for safe food.

What are the food safety pillars?

  1. The first pillar is cleaning and sanitising, meaning the physical cleaning and sanitising to remove germs and bacteria which by removing bacteria can reduce the risk of food poisoning.
  2. Personal hygiene, meaning regular hand washing as well as maintaining personal cleanliness and that of appropriate uniforms. Hand washing is arguably the most important factor in how to reduce the risk of food poisoning.
  3. Food storage meaning storing raw and ready-to-eat foods separately from each other. Separating raw foods which naturally contain bacteria from foods that shouldn’t will reduce the risk of food poisoning, especially in the fridge.
  4. Temperature control, meaning keeping hot foods hot and cold foods cold. Keeping food out of the critical danger zone at which bacteria rapidly multiply can reduce the risk of food poisoning.
  5. Food Handling which includes the principles of cooling, reheating and defrosting practices. Following these principles will naturally reduce the risk of food poisoning.

What are the food safety pillars?

listeria monocytogenes

What is Listeria monocytogenes and how does it cause food poisoning?

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

What are Listeria bacteria?

Listeria are a naturally occurring bacteria, that live generally harmlessly in the soil, water and natural environment. However, Listeria do have a species that is dangerous to our health, known as Listeria monocytogenes.

Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria monocytogenes is a gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium, and are most infamous for surviving and even growing well in refrigeration temperature ranges. This bacterium affects foods such as raw chicken, dairy, processed (deli) meats as well as smoked seafood. This bacteria can also survive in oxygen-poor conditions, meaning even vacuum-packed foods are not free from concerns.

This Listeria monocytogenes bacterium is known as an opportunistic pathogen, meaning those that are already ill or have a low immune system are most likely to suffer from an infection. Listeria monocytogenes is a food-borne illness-causing bacteria. The disease is known as Listeriosis. Listeria monocytogenes is often isolated in cattle, sheep, and fowl, and is also found in dairy products, fruits, and vegetables.

What are the Symptoms of Listeria Infection?

A person with Listeriosis usually has a fever, muscle aches, and gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea or diarrhoea. If the infection spreads to the nervous system, symptoms such as headache, stiff neck, loss of balance, confusion or convulsions can occur. With brain involvement, Listeriosis may mimic a stroke.

Infected pregnant women will ordinarily experience only a mild, flu-like illness; however, infection during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, infection of the newborn or even stillbirth. Pregnant women are about 20 times more likely than other healthy adults to get Listeriosis.

How to Prevent a Listeria monocytogenes Infection?

General recommendations include:

  1. Cook raw food from animal sources completely
  2. Keep raw meats separate from vegetables and ready-to-eat foods
  3. Avoid unpasteurised (raw) milk or foods made from unpasteurised milk
  4. Wash hands, knives, and cutting boards after handling uncooked foods
  5. Wash raw vegetables thoroughly before eating
  6. And consume perishable and ready-to-eat foods as soon as possible.

Recommendations for persons at high risk:

  1. Do not eat soft cheeses (such as feta, Brie, Camembert) unless they have labels that clearly state they are made from pasteurised milk.
  2. Don’t eat hot dogs or deli meats, unless they are reheated until hot.
  3. Wash hands after handling these products.
  4. Do not eat meat spreads or smoked seafood from the refrigerated or deli section of the store.

Check out this website for more details on legal claims for Listeriosis infections Listeria lawyers of Marler Clark

The Listeriosis Outbreak in South Africa Preview

Which of the possible sources is the cause?

We know that raw meats, especially chicken are almost always synonymous with the presence of L.mono. This is generally not a concern, as raw meats are not sterile and it would not be realistic to expect them to be, due to the nature of the product. This may not be a concern for the manufacturing industry but could be a problem for home consumers.

We know from ongoing food poisoning outbreaks, that food safety in the home is always at an acceptable standard, and the potential for cross-contamination and poor hygiene is high. Therefore L.mono has a great opportunity to establish itself in the fridge and kitchen.

The Science Behind An Outbreak Preview

When a food-borne disease outbreak is detected. Such as the Listeriosis outbreak in South Africa. Health officials and scientists work quickly to collect as much information as possible to find out what is causing it. So they can take action to prevent more people from all ill.The Listeriosis outbreak in South Africa included scientists from the NICD, Department of Health (DoH) and a few private laboratories.\

What are the food safety pillars?

salmonella bacteria

Salmonella and Salmonellosis : The Complete Beginner’s Guide

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

What are Salmonella bacteria?

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that are one of the most common food poisoning bacteria (salmonellosis) and one of the most well-known names of bacteria. Salmonella, like most other bacteria, have species that are harmless and those that are harmful to us.

Salmonella enteritidis

S.enteritidis is the disease-causing species that causes salmonellosis. S.enteritidis is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacteria.

S.enteritidis species are like E.coli and can be considered the big brother of Salmonella. They are similar because they cause infection in the same ways. Especially via the faecal-oral route. Salmonella is also thought to be one of the major causes of traveller’s diarrhoea.

E.coli are tougher than Salmonella because they can survive harsher conditions. Such as higher temperatures, lower moisture and higher salt contents.

Food microbiologists say that if there is E.coli present you are likely to have Salmonella as well. But this does not mean that we shouldn’t be concerned about Salmonella. In fact, this bacteria is most infamous for contamination of eggs rather than red meats and in the gut.

Chocolate has also had cases of contaminated with S.enteritidis. In general, we expect E.coli to be present in red meats, and Salmonella in chicken. Yet, E.coli is also present in chicken as well as fruits and vegetables. So focusing on eradicating E.coli will usually address Salmonella as well.

Salmonellosis is likely one of the most common forms of food poisoning throughout the world.


Salmonellosis

S.enteritis causes diarrhoea, stomach cramps and fever. Known as salmonellosis. The classic signs of food poisoning. They can develop within 12 hours up to 3 days and can even last up to 1 week. Most patients that are hospitalised are due to severe dehydration, because of the above symptoms.

Salmonella is a major cause of human bacterial infections in the United States. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Salmonella cause infections of around 1 million Americans every year, leading to 19,000 hospitalisations and 380 deaths. When considering bacteria such as E.coli 0157:H7 where although there are only 2 000 hospitalisations, 60 people die from this disease each year.

Transmission from Animals

You get Salmonella by eating foods that are contaminated by animal faeces. The most common foods that are contaminated with salmonella include animal products such as beef, poultry, milk, and eggs. However, any food is susceptible to contamination including fruits and vegetables.

Salmonella can be contracted directly from pets such as dogs, cats, birds, turtles, and fish. It can be spread from person to person when an infected person’s faeces contaminate food through unwashed hands.

Symptoms

Symptoms of salmonellosis include:

  1. stomach cramps
  2. bloody stools
  3. diarrhoea
  4. muscle pains
  5. nausea
  6. vomiting
  7. dizziness
  8. fever

How to prevent Salmonellosis

Preventing salmonellosis is a simple procedure:

  1. Cooking your foods to an internal temperature of 75º C (167˚F) easily kills the bacteria.
  2. Handling your raw meats (especially chicken/eggs) separately from ready to eat foods will greatly minimise this risk.
  3. Keep foods properly refrigerated until ready to prepare and cook.
  4. Handwashing and personal hygiene are essential in preventing cross-contamination.
  5. Avoid eating high-risk foods, including raw or undercooked eggs.
  6. Undercooked ground beef or poultry, and unpasteurised milk

Treatment

The  treatment of symptoms relate to dehydration in most cases. This means taking in fluids and replacing electrolytes in your body. Simple antibiotic treat will resolve further complications.

  • Anti-diarrheals. Medications such as loperamide (Imodium A-D) can help relieve cramping, but they may also prolong the diarrhoea associated with salmonella infection.
  • Antibiotics. If your doctor suspects that salmonella bacteria have entered your bloodstream, or if you have a severe case or a compromised immune system, he or she may prescribe antibiotics to kill the bacteria. Antibiotics are not of benefit in uncomplicated cases. In fact, antibiotics may prolong the period in which you carry the bacteria and can infect others, and they can increase your risk of relapse.

What are the food safety pillars?

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