For most, if not all of us, the food we eat would have gone through several steps from a farm, plantation or sea before ending up on our plates. This is called the food production chain.
At any point along this chain, namely the production, processing, distribution or preparation, things can go wrong and certain foods may end up being contaminated and perhaps even severely poisonous to the human body. This article is meant to enlighten you on the subject so that you will be more aware about the facts of the food we eat.
Food Production
The production level includes the growing and harvesting of plant foods, or raising the animals we use for food such as poultry, beef, eggs, farmed fish, etc. On a very large scale, our food originates from domesticated animals and plants, and their production occurs on farms. Some foods, though, are caught or harvested from the wild, such as certain seafood, mushrooms, etc.
There are many ways our food may become unfit for our consumption but end up on our plates anyway without us knowing it.
- Eggs: If a hen’s reproductive organs are infected, the yolk of an egg can get contaminated in the hen before it is even laid.
- Produce: If the fields are sprayed with contaminated water for irrigation, fruits and vegetables can be contaminated before they are harvested.
- Wild caught fish: Fishes in some tropical reefs may acquire a toxin from the smaller sea creatures they eat, and thus become ill themselves before ending up on our plates as our food.
The Processing Stage
The processing part of food is when the plants or animals are changed into what we recognise as food in the market or grocery stores. There are many steps involved in food processing, whereby different foods will have to go through different steps.
Take a produce like carrots for instance. Processing steps may include washing, sorting, trimming, dicing, shredding, etc. Milk on the other hand is usually processed by pasteurizing. Milk may also need to be further processed to be made into cheese, yogurt, milk powder, etc.
Nuts may be roasted, chopped, or grounded to become nut butters.
For animals, the first step of processing is slaughter. Meat and poultry may then be cut into pieces or grounded into minced meat. They may also be smoked, cooked, or frozen and may be combined with other ingredients to make bacon, sausages, ham, etc.
The processing stage is one with the highest possibilities of contamination. Some foods go through as many six or seven main processing steps, and yet end up contaminated due to human error, natural causes, and sometimes even malice.
- Processing using contaminated water. Contaminated water or ice may be unwittingly used to wash, pack, or chill fruits or vegetables, rendering those items harmful for consumption.
- During the slaughter process, germs can be transferred onto the animal’s hide from its intestines, and they can easily end up in the final meat product. If the meat product ends up at a restaurant and prepared ‘rare’ for instance, that could spell trouble for the consumer’s health.
- If germs contaminate surfaces used for food processing, such as a processing line table or storage bins, these germs can easily spread to foods that are placed on those surfaces.
Food distribution
Most of our food will not reach us if it wasn’t for the regularity of this stage of our food supply chain. It is through distribution that food from the farm or processing plants reaches the consumer or arrives at the various food service establishments like restaurants, cafes, hospital kitchens, etc.
When it comes to fresh produce, this step might involve transporting foods just once, such as trucking produce from a farm to the local farmers’ market. For other foods, it may involve many stages. In the case of meat, for instance, minced chicken or frozen burger patties might be transported from a meat processing plant to supplier, where they are likely to be stored for a few days in the latter’s warehouse before being transported again to a local distribution facility for a restaurant chain, and then only will they be delivered to individual restaurants to be prepared for consumers’ consumption.
Processed food also includes packing and packaging, as in the case of biscuits, confectionaries, condiments, rice, etc. Any errors during this stage are capable of causing contamination of the packed food which may lead to food poisoning and other health consequences.
Other ways contamination may occur during the processing include:
- When foods meant to be kept fresh via refrigeration is left too long on a loading dock during warm weather – this could be an ideal condition for harmful, heat-resistant bacteria to grow and flourish in, and this contamination may go undetected if the food item were to be frozen again before cooked and consumed.
- Fresh produce can also be easily contaminated if it is loaded into a vehicle that was not cleaned after transporting animals or animal products.
Contamination during food preparation
Preparation means getting the food ready to eat and it involves steps such as washing, cutting, cooking, etc. They usually take place at the kitchens of restaurants, homes, etc. Food preparation may be complex with intricate steps, or it may be as simple as heating up a can of soup and serving it in a bowl.
Food can easily get contaminated during this stage. For example, if a restaurant worker is sick and still shows up at work – if he happens to sneeze onto a plate of food being prepared for a consumer, contamination can take place, just like that. Or, if someone does not wash his or her hands after using the toilet and proceeds to prepare some food ( i.e make a sandwich), the finished product may be easily contaminated.
Another way food can get contaminated is by careless use of cutting boards and/or knives. For example, if a cook uses a cutting board or knife to cut raw chicken and then uses the same knife or cutting board without washing it first, to slice tomatoes for a salad, the tomatoes can be contaminated by germs from the chicken. Contamination can also take place in a refrigerator if care is not taken to separate meat items from fresh produce that is meant to be eaten raw.
MISHANDLING AND CONTAMINATION
Sometimes, a food that has caused an illness has been contaminated more than once due to mishandling at several stages along the production chain. Other than being contaminated during the production or processing stages, for instance, it could also be mishandled or left out too long to thaw before cooking. These factors may easily contribute to food poisoning. When it comes to food preparation, assuming your food item is safe at time of refrigeration, it’s good to keep in mind that many types of harmful germs grow quickly in food held at room temperature – a tiny number can grow to a large number in just a few hours! Reheating or boiling food after it has been left at room temperature for a long time does not always make it safe because some germs produce toxins that even heat can’t destroy, hence their capability to cause food-bourne illness is high.
