Food Safety

Food Safety

I. Introduction

A. Attention Getter Ð'- at the grocery store

All of us have gone to the grocery store to pick up raw meat, whether it be chicken, beef or pork, or something like that. You put it in your cart and continue to shop. You start to head for the register and oh, you forgot something, so you go back and shop a little more. Then finally you get in line, and if you have my luck you pick the slowest moving line. 20 minutes has past since you put the meat in your cart. Finally, you get to your car and load the groceries and head home. Another 10 or 15 minutes has past. You get home, put the groceries in the kitchen, have to go use the bathroom because you didn't want to go at the store, and then maybe look through the mail real quick and then the phone rings. 15 more minutes go by. Finally that raw meat makes its way into the refrigerator or freezer. For 50 minutes the raw meat was at an unsafe temperature. May not seem like that much time, especially when foods can be exposed to unsafe temperature for a cumulative of 4 hours. But those 4 hours starts when the animal slaughtered. So when you take into consideration the time it took to first process the animal, the time it took to transport the meat from its original refrigerated source to a refrigerated truck, the time it took to remove it from that truck and deliver it to the grocer and the time it took the grocer to process the product and put it out for sale and then add the time you had the meat in your possession before you put it in your refrigerator Ð'- how much time has that meat not been at a safe temperature? Something to think about

B. Reveal Ð'- So, today I would like to talk about food safety.

C. Preview Ð'- I will discuss bacteria growth and diseases, ways of preventing food borne illnesses, and proper handling and preparation of food and equipment.

II. Bacteria

A. Kinds of Bacteria - There are four types of bacteria. The first 2 are harmless and beneficial. We are primarily concerned with undesirable and disease causing bacteria. Bacteria are everywhere, in the air, in the water, in the ground, on our food, on our skin and inside our bodies.

1. Undesirable Bacteria Ð'- They are responsible for food spoilage

-May or may not cause disease but have built in safety factor Ð'- announce when they are present

-Sour odors, sticky or slimy surfaces, discoloration

-As long as we use common sense, and follow the rule "WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT", we are relatively safe from these bacteria

2. Disease-causing Bacteria Ð'- Cause of most food-borne illnesses

- Don't necessarily leave detectable odors or tastes in food

-In other words, you can't tell if the food is contaminated by smelling, tasting, or looking at it

-Only way to protect against this bacteria is proper hygiene and proper food handling and storage techniques

B. Bacteria growth

-Bacteria multiply by splitting in half

-Under ideal conditions, they can double in number every 15-30 minutes

-This means, one single bacterium could multiply to one million in less than 6 hours

1. Conditions for growth Ð'- What are those ideal conditions

1. Have to have some kind of food source

2. Moisture Ð'- Bacteria require water in order to absorb food.

- Dry foods will not support bacterial growth

3. Temperature is the most important factor because it is the most easily controlled

-Bacteria grow best at warm temps, between 40Ð'oF and 140Ð'oF Food Danger Zone

-Most bacteria are destroyed at high temps.

-Freezing slows, but does not stop growth nor does it destroy bacteria

4. Acidity or alkalinity Ð'- bacteria like a neutral environment

5. Air Ð'- most bacteria require O2 to grow (aerobic)

-some are anaerobic, which means no air is present, such as in metal cans

-Botulism, one of the most dangerous forms of food poisoning, is caused by anaerobic bacteria

6. Time Ð'- When bacteria are introduced to a new environment, they need time to adjust to their new surroundings before they start growing. This is the lag phase.

-If other conditions are good, the lag phase may last up to 1 hour.

-If it weren't for the lag phase, there would be much more food-borne diseases than there is.

-This time delay makes it possible to have foods at room temp for very short periods.

2. Protection against bacteria Ð'- There are three basic principles of food protection from bacteria

1. Keep bacteria from spreading Ð'- Don't let food touch anything that may contain disease producing bacteria and protect food from bacteria in the air.

2. Stop bacteria from growing Ð'- take away conditions that encourage bacterial growth.

- The most effective way is to keep foods out of the Food Danger Zone as much as possible.

- In other words, KEEP HOT FOODS HOT, KEEP COLD FOODS COLD

3. Kill bacteria Ð'- Most disease causing bacteria are killed if they are subjected to a temp of 170Ð'oF for 30 sec or higher temps for shorter times

C. Bacterial diseases Ð'- The United States Health Service identifies more than 40 diseases that can be transmitted through food.

-Many can cause serious illness, some are even deadly.

-Here are just a few

1. Botulism