Impact of Mass Food Production on Food Borne Illness Outbreaks - Essay Example

Impact of Mass Food Production on Food Borne Illness Outbreaks Introduction Foodborne illness, Foodborne disease,or food poisoning are all terms with a similar meaning of any health disorder or illness caused by consumption of contaminated food. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, and natural or chemical toxins are potential causes of contamination. In the case where there is mass food production and some contamination occurs, there is a likelihood of an outbreak. An outbreak is an excessive occurrence of disease in a defined geographical area, season, or defined community. The most commonly known bacteria that cause contamination include Campylobacter jejuni, Clostridium botulinum, Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella, and Listeria monocytogene, amongst others, but the ones mainly responsible for mass outbreaks are Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. Coli), and Listeria monocytogene. These pathogens are extremely sustainable and productive, thus their ability to withstand the extremes in the production processes, and reproduce rapidly to contaminate the entire, or most of the production lines. This essay will conduct a research and give the findings of how directly responsible the mass food production industry is in causing Foodborne disease outbreaks. The World Health organization (WHO) conducts what is referred to as “public health surveillance” which is a process involving the collection, evaluation, and interpretation of the morbidity and mortality data that is essential for the plan, implementation, and evaluating of public health services, and relaying of the information in time for public health action. The aim of such is to identify strange clusters of outbreaks potentially transmitted through food, and might prompt a public health response or investigation (World Health Organization 9). The WHO and many other organizations conduct researches and studies, which indicate that, indeed, mass food production is a major potential cause of Foodborne illnesses. According to Monica Eng, a Chicago Tribune reporter, meat consumption has risen over the last forty years but the surprise in it is that people pay less than half of what is cost back then. The reason for this is the housing of thousands of animals in confined factory farms that cut down the cost of producing protein, thus the low cost of the commodities. However, Monica argues, these cheap production processes have potential dangers of their own, including the exorbitant rise of health care expenditures. She states, “But the system also has created disasters like last months recall of half a billion salmonella-tainted eggs. Critics say the consolidation of food production has led to environmental damage, the loss of millions of small independent farms, rising health care expenditures and billions in tax-funded subsidies to produce cheap animal feed” (Eng 1). The case in August 2004’s recalling of half a billion salmonella-tainted eggs from the Wright county Egg operation, and the multiple violations of public health regulations at the farm depict the amount of danger that these farms pose to the public. On a different account, the Consumers Union conducted a scan on supermarkets in America and the results: about two-thirds of the chicken tested contained Campylobacter or salmonella. With such experiences, it is logical that with the rapid embracement of meat, eggs, poultry, bacon and other mass production commodities in the U.S., Foodborne disease outbreaks are likely to spread rapidly via the food system. A hamburger, a fast food with cooked patties of different parts of meat, is a favorite of many Americans today, and is available in most fast food joints. Several cases of food poisoning continue to occur, after their consumption. For instance the case of a children’s dance instructor, Stephanie Smith, who after consuming a homemade hamburger that had traces of E. Coli, experienced bouts of stomach ache that turned to bloody diarrhea, kidney failure and seizures that made her doctors to put her in a nine-week coma. On regaining consciousness, Stephanie’s nervous system had a disorder that up to this day renders her paralyzed. In a worse case, an outbreak in the Box Restaurants claimed the lives of four children from eating beef tainted with a strain of E. Cole called O157:H7 (Moss n.p). So what is the danger in Hamburger? Hamburger comes from ground beef that comes from different parts of cows, and from different slaughterhouses, of which it is logic that meat cuts are highly vulnerable to contamination, especially E. Coli. “Those low-grade ingredients are cut from areas of the cow that are more likely to have had contact with feces, which carries E. Coli, industry research shows”. Hamburger eating is a favorite of many, and is like a culture to the people of the U.S. but with the producers juggling with the consumers’ safety and health, it is an open-ended question as to how credible these mass producers are, and this means the American people remain in danger. Kushwaha & Peter (n.p) evaluate a research carried out by the Oklahoma State University’s department of animal science on three processing plants that produce ready-to-eat meat by collecting raw meat samples and some contact surface swabs between 1998 and 1999 to determine the adherence rates of Listeria. The discoveries in all the three plants were almost similar in that the adherence was weak, moderate, or intense with the percentages appearing as follows: of the 246 isolates of Listeria, 61 were weak, 148 moderate, and 37 strongly adherent. 53% of the isolates were Listeria monocytogene, a disease causing pathogen whose adherence ability allows recurrence and persistence in most sections of plant environments. The IRTA Food Safety Program in Spain conducted a study similar to the above on the manufacturing of fuet, a traditional fermented sausage, in ten small-scale production firms. The researchers chose this entity because the fermentation, in addition to other related production process subjects the products to natural contaminations that are potential agents of foodborne poisoning. The study’s focus was on the occurrence of Listeria monocytogene and Salmonella spp at various sampling points during the entire production process. The instances under focus were the raw material, factory equipment, and the final products. Salmonella appeared on the raw materials but did not appear on the equipment or the final product, Listeria monocytogene, however, showed up in all the three instances, therefore depicting its ubiquity in the entire production process. These observations show that the adherence and the incidence of the pathogens do not depend on the season, or geographic location of the production plant (Martin, Margarita & Teresa n.p). This therefore translates to a high potential of product contamination from Listeria colonization in cases where sanitary approaches in a production plant are poor or inadequate, in which case any contaminated products consumed from the plant cause or have the potential to cause massive outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. Recommendations Most food production industries employ some measures of preventing the outbreak of foodborne ailments that unknown to them or due to ignorance, are way outdated and inadequate. These measures include freezing raw materials or products, and in some instances exposing them to extremes of heat, in which research carried out by Judith, Russell, James & Corry depicts that they are inadequate and ineffective: Chilled rooms with refrigeration systems in 15 raw food, ready meals, dairy products, slicing cum packing, and catering plants served for the study. The researchers focused on Listeria Spp, Bacillus cereus, Coliforms, Staphylococcus, and Enterococci and their prevalence on drip trays, evaporators, and refrigerator walls. They also checked temperature areas such as air regulators and defrost heaters, in addition to humid areas, plant layouts, and the cleaning regimes in use. The generalized results showed that microbial contamination varies: it was lower in rooms with wrapped products than it was in the unwrapped, the product also determines the rate and degree of contamination (red meat, dry ingredients, and poultry give higher counts, whereas cooked products and raw veggies give the lowest counts). In addition, bacteria showed up on evaporator cooling coils despite the regular cleaning procedures employed. From the conclusions, the researchers recommend that these plants employ more intense and regular automated cleansing systems in eliminating and minimizing bacteria levels in all the production points. The WHO (146) gives five general recommendations to curb the issue of mass foodborne illness outbreaks: 1) Always keep food environments clean. Hygiene should be observed, that is hands must be washed before handling any food, or prior to food preparation. All surfaces and equipment used in handling food must be cleaned and sanitized, and all food protected from unnecessary exposure. 2) Raw food and cooked food should never come into contact, and different equipment should be used in handing both sets of food. This is to prevent cross-contamination from either food in case one of them is contaminated. 3) Food should be cooked thoroughly, mostly with meat and eggs, which should be brought to a 70°C boil, and all cooked food to be reheated regularly to kill all pathogens that might be in it, and prevent contamination. 4) Food should be kept at temperatures that do not support survival or reproduction of bacteria. WHO hints that cooked food should not be left at room temperature for long, and if refrigerated, the temperature should be below 5°C. It is also not advisable to keep food in the refrigerator for too long. 5) In conclusion, WHO emphasizes on the use of safe raw materials. Such include clean water, fresh and wholesome groceries and meat, and products within their expiry period. Conclusion This study shows that indeed mass food production is a potential source and somehow to blame for the instances when food borne diseases occur. However, they are not the only causes of all the outbreaks as doctors came to find out that Stephanie’s illness resulted from consuming an undercooked hamburger that was infected. As Monica Eng and Michael Moss put it, large-scale protein production and the cheapness that comes with it are only cheap from an outward perspective, but in reality tend to be exorbitant as they cause numerous health disorders in the end. It is therefore obvious that the food production industry remains a major contributor to foodborne diseases, prioritizing their profits above our health. However, the credibility of mass food production is restorable if they can find measures that will protect the public from health risks, such as observing public health regulations, implementing effective bacteria elimination mechanisms and most important of all, put the well-being of their consumers first, by producing quality rather than cheap, dangerous quantity. Work cited Eng, Monica.The Costs of Cheap Meat. Chicago Tribune, n.p, 24 February 2010. Web. 30 October 2013 Judith A, Evans, Russell Steven L, James Christian, and Corry Janet E.L. "Microbial contamination of food refrigeration equipment." Journal of Food Engineering. 62.3. May 2004: 225-232. Print. Kushwaha, Kalpina, and Peter M Muriana. "Adherence Characteristics of Listeria Strains Isolated from Three Ready-to-Eat Meat Processing Plants."Journal of Food Protection. 72.10. Oct 2009: 2125-31. Print. Martin, Belen, Margarita Garriga, and Teresa Aymerich. "Prevalence of Salmonella spp. and Listeria monocytogenes at Small-Scale Spanish Factories Producting Traditional Fermetned Sausages."Journal of Food Protection. 74.5. May 2011: 812-5. Print. Moss, Michael. The Burger That Shattered Her Life. The New York Times, N.P, 3 October 2009. Web. 30 October 2013 World Health Organization. Foodborne Disease Outbreaks: Guidelines for Investigation and Control. France, 2008. Print Read More