| It is estimated that 20 percent of all emergency room visits are due to foodborne illness. As dietary habits change to include more meals prepared away from home, higher consumption of fresh foods, and more imported foods, the risks of foodborne illness change. Food safety procedures that we learned from our parents may not be sufficient to keep us healthy. Food is increasingly contaminated; a steady percentage of chicken, eggs, beef, and pork have some contamination from salmonella and campylobacter. Without taking precautions in the form of safe handling techniques, consumers are almost assured of contracting foodborne illnesses.
Experts disagree about whether food is safer today than in the past, but they agree that ensuring safe food has become more complex than at any other point in history. Although we have solved many of the food safety challenges of the past, new problems have developed. Before pasteurization of milk, people worried about contracting bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis, and other milk-borne diseases. Today there are concerns about bovine growth hormone, antibiotic, and pesticide residues in milk. Toxic coloring additives used to be added to food unregulated. Now people worry about legal additives and ingredients like Olestra, saccharin, NutraSweet, and hydrogenated oils. Before refrigeration, people used other methods to ensure food safety, including eliminating leftovers by feeding them to their animals. Today proper storage techniques are essential for food safety. A flock of chickens that became diseased one hundred years ago only affected a few people. Now that flocks can be as large as thousands of chickens, an outbreak of salmonella or campylobacter can affect many more people. Globalization also affects food safety. The grapes imported during the winter from Chile may have been grown with pesticides that may be illegal in industrialized countries. Setting aside problems of pesticides, the health of the workers picking and processing food directly affects the safety of the product, as do the sanitation practices in the field. Are there toilets and handwashing facilities in the field? Do pickers and processors use them? If not, there is great potential to pass on bacteria, viruses, and parasites. |
