Food Safety Real vs. Perceived Risk Keeping Foods Safe Throughout the Foodchain

1
Food Safety Real vs. Perceived Risk Keeping
Foods Safe Throughout the Foodchain

• Dr. Joe OLeary
• Introduction to Animal and Food Sciences Agent
  In-Service

2
Food Risk

• Eating food is a high risk activity with a 100
  probability of eventual death
• Not eating food an even more hazardous activity

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Food Risk

• Voluntary
• Prepare your own food
• Involuntary
• Spouse prepares your food
• Annual cost of foodborne disease 8-23 B
• 100 pathogenic food microorganisms
• Most foodborne disease outbreaks (FDB) are
  preventable

4
Typical Food Hazards

• Pathogenic microorganisms
• Pesticides
• Chemicals preservatives
• Antibiotics
• Hormones
• Allergens

5
Food Allergy

• 29,000 hospitalized per year
• 150 die anaphylactic shock
• Food recalls 1 every 3 days
• lt 5 all year in 1990
• Ingredient label allergenic food not listed

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Foodborne Disease Types

• Food intoxication
• toxin produced in food
• Food infection
• must ingest live organisms
• Case person ill as a result of eating food
• Outbreak 2 or more cases

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Foodborne Illness Effects

• Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, prostration
• Worst case - death

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Current estimates of disease from foodborne
pathogens

• Each year known pathogens cause- 13.8 million
  illnesses, - 60,854 hospitalizations, and -
  1,809 deaths.
• Each year unknown pathogens cause- 62 million
  illnesses,- 263,000 hospitalizations, and-
  2,400 deaths.

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Reported Foodborne Disease

• 1990-2003 3,500 outbreaks, 115,700 cases
  9,000 cases/year
• Reasons for discrepancy
• Time from consumption to onset of symptoms
• Many cases are mild
• Only a few outbreaks can be fully investigated
  and reported

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Foodborne Illness Costs

• Pathogen Cases Cost/Case
• Campylobacter 1,963,141 611
• Salmonella 1,341,873 1,788
• E. coli O157H7 62,458 11,207
• E. coli non - O157 31,229 9,606
• L. Monocytogenes 2,493 922,583

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Other Considerations

• Liability insurance
• Product recall
• Market re-entry costs
• Legal costs

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Usual Incubation Period Ranges for Selected
Foodborne Pathogens
http//www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FoodborneDisease/
foodandpathogens/index.htmillnesses
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Foodborne Disease Mortality

• Young, old, immunocomprised, pregnant at greater
  risk
• High - listeria, gt 40 for very young, old,
  pregnant
• S. aureus toxin - very low
• E. coli O157H7 high for young children
• Vibrio vulnificus very high risk for people with
  liver disease

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Foodborne Illness Risk

• FB cases Deaths Casefatality
• C. botulinum 58 4 0.0789
• Campylobacter spp. 1,963,141 99 0.0010
• E. coli O157H7 62,458 52 0.0083
• L. monocytogenes 2,493 499 0.2000
• Salmonella 1,341,873 553 0.0078
• V. vulnificus 47 18 0.3900
• Toxoplasma gondii 112,500 375 n/a
• Trichenella spiralis 52 0 0.0000

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Putting the Risk in Context

• Each year, for every I million people living in
  the USA ..
• 30 will die from accidental poisoning
• 36 will die from foodborne illness
• 160 will die from motor vehicle accidents
• Cellphone vol. Risk 13/million drivers
• Cellphone invol. Risk 4/ million road users
• 2,800 will die from coronary heart disease

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Foods Involved

• Perishable foods more frequently involved

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Eating Potentially Risky Foods

• Food Type of US Pop. Eating
• 1993 2001
• Raw clams 8 6
• Raw oysters 16 12
• Raw fish 9 15
• Raw eggs 53 42
• Steak tartar 6 4
• Pink hamburger 24 16

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Most Common Causes of Foodborne Disease

• Improper holding or cooking temperature
• Poor personal hygiene
• e.g. Duke vs Florida State football game
• Unsafe food source not a major cause Many
  outbreaks involved a lack of common sense

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Risk vs. Consumption

• 2002 per capita consumption in lbs or milk
  equivalent

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Why Foodborne Illness Occurs

• gt 90 of foodborne illness is preventable
• Inadequate sanitation
• Poor personal hygiene anal oral route
• Temperature abuse
• Unsafe food handling practices

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Seasonality of Outbreaks

• Twice as common in summer months
• Undercooked hamburger
• Picnics etc.
• Temperature abuse
• Lack of sanitary facilities

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Consumer Perception

• Organic, natural, unprocessed foods are safer and
  more nutritious
• Imported foods are not as safe
• Pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, genetically
  modified foods are problems
• No scientific or regulatory evidence to support
  these hypotheses

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Raw vs Pasteurized Milk

• gt 99.9 of milk is currently pasteurized
• Prior to pasturization 40 milkborne outbreaks
  annually
• 1990-2003 43 outbreaks with 1,015 cases involved
  milk (24 cases per outbreak)
• Raw milk the causitive agent in the majority of
  these outbreaks

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Preventing FoodBorne Disease(Production and
Processing)

• Follow regulations in production, processing and
  storage of foods
• Minimize potential contamination of raw product
• If possible include an inactivation process
• Minimize contamination after processing
• Use appropriate storage

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Common Food Processing Methods

• Heating pasteurization to sterilization
• Drying must protect dried product from
  environment
• Refrigeration a temporary process
• Freezing long shelf life with proper packaging
• Other reduced water activity, ozone, UV light,
  sanitizing rinses, irradiation, high pressure

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Requirement for Processed Potentially Hazardous
Foods

• Process must deliver a 5 log reduction for
  pathogen of concern (99.999 kill)
• Can be achieved by a combination of processing
  methods
• Listeria and E. coli are frequently the most
  resistant pathogens

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Low Acid Acidified Foods

• Facility registered with FDA or USDA
• Process developed by Process Authority
• Process on file with FDA or USDA for each product
  processed in each container size
• Process records must be checked for adequacy
  within 24 hrs and kept for 3 years

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Preventing FoodBorne Disease(Consumer)

• Keep potentially hazardous foods out of the
  danger zone (40-140oF)
• Refrigerate leftovers promptly
• Prevent cross-contamination
• Wash hands as recommended
• Use sanitizers
• Do not prepare food for others when ill

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Home Refrigerator

• Ideally lt 40oF
• Lower temperatures extend shelf life
• Do not overload
• Clean and sanitize spills
• Some pathogens can grow slowly
• Date stored foods and use FIFO
• Reheat as recommended

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FDA/FSIS Survey not washing hands after
touching -

• 1998 2001
• Raw meat 18 15
• Cutting board/raw meat 16 13
• Raw fish 11 10
• Cracking eggs 56 55
• Cutting board/raw fish 5 4
• Before preparing meal 31 29

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