Australian Food Safety Blog

We’ve just started to accumulate helpful food poisoning statistics and facts. You can access them by clicking on the hyperlink.

As food safety specialists, we believe prevention is the key to reducing the incidence of food poisoning.

One way to prevent food poisoning is to put the shocking statistics front and center so everyone’s aware of the dangers and alarming frequency that it occurs.

Since most people are generally familiar with poultry food poisoning, i.e. salmonella and campylobacter, the funny video was chosen for your entertainment:

While this is a common type of food poisoning, there are actually many types of bacteria, parasites, toxins and viruses found within all of the food groups if it’s not taken care of head-on. Because of the variety, food safety specialists tend to group all food poisonings into two main categories: Infectious causes and toxic causes.

Infectious agents cause infection after food that’s been contaminated by organisms whereas toxic agents, the less likely of the two, are much more potent and attack the human body, occasionally overwhelming the entire immune system.

Anyone who’s had food poisoning knows it isn’t any fun at all, to the point that it makes people paranoid of which foods are safe or not to eat. This makes food poisoning a pretty big deal in all food businesses alike for the simple fact that it can make or break the business.

Be on the safe side and always know what’s going in and out of your kitchen!

We often get asked to evaluate and assess food preparation which involves fat, protein, carbohydrates…

But one thing we advise all our clients is NOT to answer the question “Does this make me look fat?”

Thanks to GraphJam for hilarious images like this one – life’s too short to be taken too seriously!

If you come across anything you think is funny, please forward to us. We’d love to post it and give you full credit with a hard back link to your website or blog.

I couldn’t pass up the chance to share this photo with you – to put our Food Safety Standards in perspective.

The next time you get upset because of the bureaucracy, red tape and government regulations – just remember, they exist for a reason…!

Ensure YOUR Product/Service Matches The Hype!

How many times have you watched a television ad, listened to a radio commercial or seen a humongous billboard appearing to have the best looking food around?

Fast Food Advertising Misrepresentation

Does it look a little something like this?

How often have you fallen into this trap? Only to find out after your money’s been spent, that you’ve been, well…duped?

You’re not alone!

This is a mass marketing approach that might work in the short term, but not recommended if you want loyal customers.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression – resist the temptation to misrepresent what you do – instead IMPROVE and you’ll see your results multiply!

Not sure if this approach works, check out the Carnegie Deli in New York…

While hand washing is very effective at preventing the spread of infection by wiping out bacteria as well as cross-contamination of foods, it is less than adequate for getting rid of many viruses such as hepatitis A and protozoa. One out of every five cases of food-borne illnesses is caused by an infected worker’s hands coming into contact with food, so;

Clean gloves are a better choice than unclean hands.

However, it has not been proven that the use of disposable vinyl, latex or non-latex gloves is a safer method of handling food compared to effective hand washing techniques. Wearing gloves can lead to a false sense of security and safety and can more than likely cause food contamination if hands are not washed and air dried prior to putting them on; so this can result in cross contamination from raw to high risk food in the same way as it does with hands.

Defects in a significant number of gloves, such as pinholes or punctures, enable bacteria from the hands to pass through the gloves and may result in contamination of high-risk foods with large numbers of pathogens. Latex gloves can also produce allergic reactions in some people.

The hand environment created by wearing gloves provides the ideal conditions for the growth of bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus.

Cleaning hands before putting on gloves and frequent disposal of gloves minimises the risk for food contamination.

It is good practice to wash hands thoroughly after gloves have been removed as pathogens may have multiplied significantly while the gloves were being worn. Some workers tend to wear the same pair of gloves for extended periods and it is that complacency that could account for the failure of gloves to prevent bacterial contamination.

Therefore the use of gloves could be counterproductive because workers might tend to wash their hands less frequently.

Food handlers with gloves are more aware they are handling high-risk foods and therefore are less likely to scratch their head and pick their nose or all those other bad hygiene practices that can lead to the spread of bacteria.

It therefore appears that a multi-tiered approach will offer the best protection.

Food service workers need to be educated about hand washing, using proper gloves and preventing ill employees from preparing food. They also need to be provided proper training in proper hygiene with a system put in place for monitoring compliance.

Hand Washing + Food Business = Healthy Customers

Graphjam.com has done it yet again, eloquently displaying anecdotal statistical data what we all know to be true:

Handwashing Statistics

When asking employees or owners in the food business what their #1 safety hazard in the kitchen is, they’ll always answer, ‘Hands’.

Considering the fact humans have between 2 and 10 million bacteria between the fingertip and elbow and this number doubles after using the toilet. It’s not surprising and in agreement with any health science degree class this is at the top of the list for potential safety hazards in the kitchen.

The most common diseases spread by food business employees with unwashed hands include:

• Nosocomial Infections: Most commonly, E. coli, MRSA and pseudomonas
• Airborne Illnesses: Respiratory illnesses such as common colds and flues spread by sneezing and coughing
• Noroviruses: Gastrointestinal infections transmitted through the fecal-oral route, i.e. vomiting, nausea, diarrhea
• Hepatitis A: A viral infection affecting the liver spread most commonly by food handlers when touching food containers

These foodborne diseases can create havoc in food businesses if the proper steps aren’t taken, leading to destroyed reputations of great dining facilities and experiences.

Washing hands is something everyone has control over and is the easiest and most effective prevention measure to stop bacteria from spreading.

It’s also completely cost effective for ALL food business owners!

Understanding the dangers that lay in our hands makes it an undeniable fact that washing hands benefits the people who make the food as well as the people who eat it!

Unless you have talent like this. Then play with it as much as you want!

For more photos of what you can do with cookies, click on this link -> Antimimeticisomorphism.

Once on the page, click on Cool Photos and then select Cookies.

When you go to this site, you’ll find a whole collection of interesting images and videos…

As Food Safety Specialists, we are often asked to gauge the “chickenyness” of certain foods. Luckily for us, GraphJam has already done this for us – enjoy!

For the next three days we are exhibiting at the Food Service Australia expo at the Sydney Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour. There is a map on our website (click on the FSA link first) if you need to know where the centre is… perhaps I should have showed the map to my taxi driver yesterday morning when I arrived in Sydney. Despite numerous attempts at explaining what and where the Sydney Exhibition Centre is, he kept wanting to try and take me to the Sydney Entertainment Centre. While we hope to be Entertaining, I don’t think the venue would suit.

The set up for the expo went well and I have already met a number of my neighbours for the next three days. Two of which may be of considerable interest to those of you who try and be environmentally friendly. The first is a company called BioEarth that sell packaging material that I am told is edible (corn starch). While I wouldn’t eat it, it is biodegradable which is a definite bonus.

The second company is called Nova Spring Water that provide water for coolers in single use containers that are recyclable, eliminating the need for collection and return of polycarbonate bottles.

Continue reading ‘Food Services Australia Show’

I was just speaking with Dr Marc Dussault, an Exponential Growth Strategist, about inviting people like you to attend the Food Services Australia Trade Show coming up in June (23-24-25)… That’s when Marc asked me a question that through me for a loop. He asked me…

“Do you know how high above the net a top tennis player has to hit the ball to get the ball deep into the back court if he or she is standing on the base line?”

Think about it before you click on the READ MORE button

Continue reading ‘What does Tennis have to do with the upcoming Food Services Australia Show?’