There are many reasons why food handling courses are important. First food
borne illnesses are responsible for seventy six million people’s illness in United States of America. Around two hundred people are hospitalized every year in America and five thousand deaths in United States occur each year. And cost of fighting this illness is estimated to be about ten to eighty billion dollars. These numbers are only of reported cases. Actual number could be much higher. But cost of employee going through food safety classes is actually very less than fighting against these illnesses. Only one mistake can destroy your food business. These means you have bear the cost of law suits, increased insurance payments, low employee morale and negative publicity. If combine everything, the result is shutdown of your food business. This is why training people in food handling courses important for your business.
Causes of Illness
Contamination that causes illness among when they eat food, they are mainly divided into three categories.
- Chemical contamination: Chemical contamination is some kind of harmful that chemical goes into the food. Usually this happens due improper storage or excess concentration.
- Physical contamination: Physical contamination is contamination through a physical material like metal, part of equipment, fingernail, bandages, hairs and many others.
- Biological contamination: Biological contamination happens due presence of small microscopic organism which can a part of food or enter into the food due to improper handling. This is the most focused category. This category itself is divided into sub-categories.
- Bacteria: Bacteria are single cell organisms which can grow anywhere. They do not require any kind host to live on. It lives like any other animal and can reproduce on their own. Bacteria usually require high protein and high carbohydrate food source to reproduce. Hence they are more prominent in meat, poultry and sea food. And even they are found in cooked plant food such as big potatoes, pasta and rice.
- Viruses: There are viruses can cause illness if goes into food. Hepatitis A and Norovirus are two examples of food borne viruses. Norovirus has a capability spread very fast and can cause catastrophe. They have capability spread even after the symptoms are gone. That is why it is important to maintain personal hygiene.
- Protozoans: Protozoans are like viruses, they must have living host to reproduce. Giardia and Cryptosporidium are two examples of it.
- Parasites: Parasites are commonly known to be found in fish, pork, or in wild game. It is important to have food control in case of cold stored foods.
- Yeast and fungus: Yeast and fungus are mainly found in an acidic environment with low water activity. They are the main reason why the food gets spoiled after some time.
Hazardous Food Contents
There are foods which may be hazardous based upon what they contain. High protein food and high carbohydrate rich food have the capability to have bacteria if left for a long time. Slightly high acidity pH or neutral pH has a history of causing food borne illness.
This is why it’s most important to have people go through food handling courses, because only a trained person can have an eye for these kinds of dangerous contaminations.