Campylobacteriosis

Campylobacteriosis is an acute infectious diarrheal disease caused by the bacterium Campylobacter, a bacterium mostly common found in raw or undercooked poultry meat, unpasteurised milk, and untreated water, is pathogen that cause gastro-enteritis.

Various virulence factors such as flagelin, lipopolysacharides, adhesions and invasions have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Campylobacter infection.The illness normally occurs 2 to 5 days after ingesting the contaminated food.

The illness usually lasts1 week; however some infected individuals may remain asymptomatic.

The illness is estimated too cause approximately 2.4 million cases per year, which is more than shigella and Salmonella bacteria combined. Anyone can contract campylobacteriosis but children under 5 years of age and young adults aged 15 to 29 years are most often afflicted.
Campylobacteriosis

Favorable growth conditions for bacteria

Favorable growth conditions for bacteria
Microorganisms grow when they have the right nutrients and conditions for growth. Bacteria need these conditions to grow:

Food
High protein foods are often contaminated at the time of purchase. Using safe food practices destroys the bacteria. Acidity: bacteria prefer low-acid environments. Some bacteria do survive an acidic environment.

Bacteria use an enormous range include various sugars and either carbohydrates, amino acids, sterols, alcohols, hydrocarbons, inorganic salts and carbon dioxide.

Time
Potentially hazardous foods should not remain in the danger zone for more than four hours during the entire food handling process.

Temperature
The temperature danger zone is 40 degrees F to 140 degrees F.

Oxygen
Many bacteria grow bets in the present of oxygen (aerobic organism). Some bacteria grow without oxygen- anaerobic. However, both types of bacteria cause foodborne illness.

Others grow equally well under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions.

Moisture
Bacteria grow best in a moist environment.
A high proportion of the mass of a bacterium is water, and during growth, nutrients and waste products enter and leave the cell. Bacteria can grow only in or on materials which have adequate free or available water.

pH
Most bacteria grow best at near pH7 (neutral), and the majority cannot grow under strongly acidic or strongly alkaline solution.
Favorable growth conditions for bacteria

Ignorance of food handling procedures contribute to foodborne diseases

Ignorance of food handling procedures contribute to foodborne diseases
Almost all the factors that contribute to food disease result from ignorance of proper food-handling procedures or from the unwillingness of some individuals in food industries (including food processor) to comply with the basic guidelines for proper food handling. Thus foodborne diseases will continue to occur at unnecessarily high rates as long as:

• Food handlers do not employ strict sanitation in both their personal habits and in the maintenance of their work area and equipment
• Foods are not properly refrigerated
• Foods are not adequately processed
• Cross contamination situations are not avoided
• Management does not realize the importance of preventing foodborne disease

Proper food handling procedures include rather simple techniques, such as holding at specified temperatures, but they also include complex procedures, such as those for calculating processing times and predicting certain biochemical reactions that might result from processing modifications.

Ordinarily, therefore, at some level in the food processing stage, the services of a professional food technologist are required. Once a food has been properly processed, the remaining handling it undergoes does not require a professional food technologist, but it does require periodic quality control checks by personnel qualified in microbiology and sanitation.
Ignorance of food handling procedures contribute to foodborne diseases

Foodborne disease

Foodborne Disease
Illness from foodborne disease has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, even though many cases are mistaken for intestinal flu. Foodborne diarrheal disease may be life-threatening or may have long-term consequences such as autoimmune disorders (including rheumatoid arthritis), cardiovascular disease, and allergies.

It can damage the structure and function of the intestines, leading to malabsorption, and can weaken the body’s immune system. Formerly, most foodborne illness resulted from foods prepared within the home, but now the major portion is caused by foods eaten away from home and by factory-prepared foods.

Changed agricultural practices are part of the problem. Antibiotic use in farm animals is the primary cause of the increase in salmonellosis, now a major foodborne disease. For years, critics warned that the resultant development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria could be followed by animal-to-human transmission. But cattlemen and agricultural officials demanded proof. Proof has now been supplied by several carefully conducted studies tracing human salmonellosis back to resistant bacteria in meat.

Current food trends contribute to foodborne disease – fads such as steak tartare, marinated raw beef, undercooked goose liver, rare duck breasts, and, especially, undercooked or raw fish; the incidence of infections from the latter two is increasing in the United States. All of these present serious health problems. Fish tapeworm infections have not been associated with properly canned commercial fish, but the larval parasite can survive up to 400 days in iced fish.

To kill the tapeworms, one must either cook all finfish thoroughly, with all parts reaching 145° F for at least five minutes; or freeze it at -4° F for 72 hours; or brine the fish for at least three weeks; or smoke it and then cook it at 150 to 180° F ("hot smoking"). Commercial smoked salmon (lox) is judged safe, but gravlax and belly lox are potentially dangerous. Through cooking of finfish kills roundworms. The internal temperature of the fish must reach 145° F.

The current recommendation is to cook 13 minutes at 450° F for each inch of thickness of fish. This practice offers greater safety than the previous recommendation of 10 minutes. Roundworms are commonly found in cold-water fish such as Pacific Salmon, Atlantic cod, pollack, mackerel, herring, and Atlantic plaice, some of which are being recommended for their omega 3 fatty acids. Roundworms also have been found in commercial gourmet frozen fish dinners, which should be cooked thoroughly.

What is to be done?
*Avoid raw and undercooked flesh foods
*Store foods at safe temperatures
*Cook and reheat foods thoroughly
*Practice good personal hygiene Practice good food sanitation, such as scrubbing of hands, knives, and cutting boards with hot soapy water
*Use an impermeable cutting board for flesh foods and reserve another cutting board for other foods.
Foodborne Disease