HOSP110 Practical Food Safety and Awareness
Food Safety Management Strategies
Food Issues
Abstract
HOSP110 Practical Food Safety and Awareness The following essay on food safety will discuss about the importance of food safety and why governments and food standards agency now a days focus on the devastating consequences of food borne illness and diseases. It will deal with food poisoning and its risks. Apart from it the most common types of pathogens (salmonella, e coli, and campylobacter) have been mentioned describing the outbreaks. The main thing is that all the above-mentioned things have been explained here with a focus on the food safety management. Some of the tools such as irradiation and specially HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) to support hospitality management have also occupied some space here with its importance. As a final point, it has been thought to be practical to examine the solution with recommendations for practical adoption for the hospitality industry to deal with the complexity and cost of the above food safety management tools
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Write My Essay For MeIntroduction
The world is full of various kinds of problems and it is true that everyday efforts are made to find out solution to these problems and some of them are sorted out too. Among the issues concerned directly with the human survival, which are posing a very big challenge in front of the world, one is the issue of food safety. According to Nestle 2004, food ‘poisonings’, causing death, raise alarm not only about the food served in restaurants and fast-food outlets but also about the food bought in supermarkets. Consumers, industries as well governments are together taking food safety as a serious issue. There is a saying “health is wealth” and any carelessness which may cause food poisoning or any problem like this may lead to a very fatal consequence, so it becomes essential to take necessary food safety measures. To make sure food is safe to eat the Food Standards Agency carries out a range of work, including funding research on chemical, microbiological and radiological safety, as well as food hygiene and allergy.. As Griffths 2000 says, the food chain, like any other chain, is only as strong as its weakest link and the responsibility for food safety lies not only with producers and processors of food, but also governments and consumers themselves.
Food Poisoning & its risks
Food is essential to life but if contaminated can cause illness and even death.
But fortunately only in a minority of cases the latter happened although there is social and economic consequences associated with the millions of cases of food related illness. The WHO definition embraces all food and waterborne illness regardless of the presenting symptoms and includes “any disease of an infectious or toxic nature caused by, or thought to be cause by, the consumption of food or water” (Griffith 2006). Food borne disease therefore includes illness caused by various chemical, physical or microbiological hazards, which may be present in food or water. Anything that interferes with the safe foods is a food hazard (Hemminger, 2000) which can be present in the product that can cause harm to the consumer either through illness.
Biological hazards include food borne infection which occurs eating something with live germs inside them. On the other hand it also consists of food intoxication occurring when a person eats something with bacteria- produced poisons that won’t be killed by heating. The agents causing these food infections are bacteria, toxins, virus, parasites and fungi. Current food trends reveal that more and more frequently today we buy pre-prepared ready-to eat convenience foods, dine out in restaurants and cafés, prefer fresh over frozen products and have a growing demand for foods of animal origin. While this gives us many new choices in the food we eat, this vast selection of foods we expect to be available to us “now” has possibly created a greater risk of bacterial food poisoning. Germs or bacteria grow in the food themselves when people don’t store it properly or handle with care. Even in the fridge, the food may get bacteria. Food poisoning bacteria are often present naturally in food but usually only in small numbers. However, given the right conditions their numbers can increase extremely quickly, so that 1 single bacteria could multiply to over 16 million in only 6 hours. This is where the food poisoning problem begins. As Eley 1996 says, some food poisoning is of mild level and some is strong level. Accordingly the food affects the human body and causes health problems while sometimes it result to be fatal too.
For food poisoning to occur there must be bacteria or their toxin present in the food. Secondly the food must be suitable for organism’s growth. There must be right conditions of warmth and moisture for the bacteria to grow while with sufficient tome for bacteria to grow and multiply. Adding above all there must be enough bacteria or their toxin present to cause present to cause illness and the food should be consumed. This is commonly called the food poisoning chain which is diagrammed below.
(resources.ccc.govt.nz)
Food
Poisoning
Bacteria Contaminate
High
Risk
Foods
HIGH RISK FOODS
Common Pathogens (in the Hospitality Industry)
The three principle food poisoning pathogens that are dealt with that might affect the hospitality industries are Salmonella, E-coli and Campylobacter.
Salmonella is usually heard of in the catering industry with reference to chicken and eggs. Some pets like birds and turtles also carry this Salmonella. The most appalling thing about it is that it can even go into the lymph tracts, which are known for tracking water and protein to the blood, and the blood itself.
Thus it may cause some serious complications too. The main symptoms associated with the disease salmonellasis are fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps, and headache. Time frame lasts for 12-36 hrs normally 4-7 days. The prevention could be to chill food quickly, using pasteurized milk and egg products. Raw and cooked cross-contamina………………..
