After the cucumber scandal that rocked the United States last week (click here for the full coverage), consumers have placed their focus on purchasing local produce. Why? They believe that in their home country, they have better processes of managing food and this means that the product will be void of food borne pathogens such as salmonella and e. coli. They are wrong.
Yesterday in Washington, a Los Chilangos food truck caused 10 people to become sick from food poisoning. The food sold in the farmers market was subjected to the e. coli pathogen. Furthermore, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has compiled a paper on Salmonella outbreaks in the U.S. from 1968 to 2011. In this report, it shows that salmonella outbreaks have occurred in every state in the country (aside from Montana and North Dakota, and those two states are involved in the current cucumber Salmonella outbreak).
It is important to remember that food contamination can happen anywhere and at any time. At any point of the food production process, whether it is offshore or home grown, food can be easily contaminated. In order to prevent this from happening, one must adopt good food hygienic practices. If you want more information on this, click here to our quick run-down.
Do you need to change the way your perspective on home grown produce? Do you need to adopt better practices to protect your business from causing a food poisoning catastrophe?
If you would like more information on this topic or get the source URL for this article, then email us at [email protected]
