— OPINION —
Tis the season of summer feasts and boozy barbecues in America. It’s time for a reminder about food safety.
This month, World Food Safety Day came and went June 7 with a whimper, and yet food safety affects all of us. The Food and Drug Administration recently upgraded a tomato recall in three U.S. states to its most severe warning because of potential Salmonella contamination. Raw produce and leafy greens tend to bring the highest risk of outbreaks involving Salmonella and E. coli, and those are just two examples.
According to the CDC, six major pathogens cause nearly 10 million foodborne illnesses in the United States every year, resulting in tens of thousands of hospitalizations and hundreds of deaths.
Knowing that foodborne illnesses are incredibly common is the first step to preventing them. People need to wash their raw produce and leafy greens thoroughly, in addition to being responsible when cooking. Undercooked food can lead to severe health problems.
But there is much more to food safety than individual responsibility. Companies in food production and processing have a responsibility to adopt and stick to best practices that keep their products safe for everyone. Consumers have no choice but to trust food producers and processors to take necessary measures for food safety, and corporate America needs to answer the call.
Sanitation procedures are non-negotiable when it comes to food safety. Protecting facilities, employees, and ultimately consumers requires a vigilant approach to detecting and preventing contamination from pathogens like Salmonella. One useful approach is to identify “food safety zones” that are determined by the vulnerability of a food exposed to the production environment, including the surrounding areas. With food safety zones in place, companies can streamline their swabbing to check for potential pathogens with higher efficacy.
Consider meat production, for example. It is imperative for food companies in the space to regularly conduct surface swab tests for pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus. Swabbing helps monitor surfaces, identify possible sources of contamination, and boost hygiene.
There is a reason why FDA regulators engage in environmental sampling during inspections. From manufacturing plants to commercial kitchens, the FDA leans on surface swab testing to determine whether an environment contains harmful bacteria — and hold companies accountable. For their own sake and the well-being of consumers, companies are best served getting out in front of food safety, and running their own rigorous tests.
Vigilance is critical even beyond food. Take beer, which is America’s official alcoholic beverage of the summer. Nearly two-thirds of Americans will drink a beer in the weeks ahead, making it all the more important for beer producers to swab and test. While established restaurants and breweries generally take food safety seriously, hobbyist home brewers and new micro-brewers may not have access to the food safety testing information they need to ensure they’re brewing clean beer.
Many smaller brewers tend to worry about yeast, but it is actually lactobacillus bacteria that becomes the most common form of contamination in breweries. Due to unclean lines, contaminated beer is a real hazard.
Again, one of the easiest ways to validate food safety procedures is to swab for bacterial growth in areas through which the beer must pass. The best practice is to swab all areas which should be clean and sterile, including cleaned-in-place fermenter hose ends, exit ports from hard piping, and plate coolers. The same goes for swabbing keg interiors and filling heads.
This summer, food safety requires an all-hands-on-deck approach. Just like companies must prioritize food safety procedures, consumers need to pay attention to where they buy their food (or drinks) and the potential risks. There are resources online to determine which companies take food safety seriously — and which don’t.
At the same time, all of us need to keep track of recent outbreaks in our respective areas, such as the recent spread of Salmonella. From public service announcements to news stories, there is no substitute for public awareness.
By taking food safety seriously, companies and consumers can ensure a safe summer season for all. Cheers to happy, risk-free grilling—and drinking too.
About the author: Virginia Templet is the marketing director at Puritan Medical Products.
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