Australian Food Safety Blog

Gavin Buckett was recently interviewed by the Daily Telegraph about the high incidence of Chinese food restaurants in the NSW Food Authority name and shame register.

Click on the hyperlink to read the full story!

NSW Food Authority Name And Shame Register

We advocate food safety on this blog because it’s important. The recent food poisoning outbreak in Europe is quite alarming, killing at least 18 people, sickening more than 1,600 and spreading to least 10 European countries.

An alarmingly large number of victims — about 500 — have developed kidney complications that can be deadly.

Chinese and German scientists analyzed the DNA of the E. coli bacteria and determined that the outbreak was caused by “an entirely new, super-toxic” strain that contains several antibiotic-resistant genes, according to a statement from the Shenzhen, China-based laboratory BGI. It said the strain appeared to be a combination of two types of E. coli. Click here to read more about the Super Toxic Strain involved.

I just came across an article about food safety in China that as a result of increasing  public concerns over the country’s food safety following a wave of recent scandals, something needed to be done.

China’s highest court has ordered judges nationwide to hand down harsher sentences, including the death penalty, to people convicted of violating food safety regulations.

Now that’s severe punishment which highlights the growing importance of food safety on both a national and international scale.

Let’s face it, without proper regulation it’s a death sentence for some unsuspecting person…

Words like, ‘food poisoning’, ‘foodborne illness’ and ‘kitchen accidents’ are very common when talking about food safety in general. What isn’t talked about as much is the science behind all of it.

Since the majority of food safety revolves around foodborne pathogens, scientific research is the foundation of all food safety rules with two main types of research: Laboratory experimentation and investigation.

Because most countries’ governments depend on disease and food surveillance data to regulate their country’s types of foodborne pathogens, different types of testing are required for epidemiology, food microbiology and food technology. All of this falls under laboratory experimentation and provides the types of harmful microorganisms found in food that causes disease along with the level of risk involved.

After this data is discovered and on hand, food safety specialists take on the essential role of investigator to assist the public in awareness and help food businesses keep their industrial kitchens free from foodborne illnesses.

This investigation is extremely important, to say the least, for any well-run food establishment, especially considering there are over 200 known bacterial pathogens that exist in a spore or vegetative cell, viruses, parasites and toxins. That’s a scary number of foodborne pathogens which is why trained professionals are needed to handle this spectrum of the food business!

If not, restaurants may end up doing their own inspections, much like this man:

We’re previously blogged about how important it is to wash your hands. Of course some people need a little motivation – we’re not sure if this will work, but it sure is an innovative approach to improve hand washing!

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.