Despite how much food microbiologists know about keeping foods safe, food poisoning outbreaks still occur. How often, would you say, do outbreaks occur? Maybe once a week, once a month, maybe even once every 2-3 months?
One good source for this information is the Food Safety News website (interestingly, it’s managed by lawyers). As of today (August 18, 2023), they reported 11 outbreaks this past week and more than 20 outbreaks just since the beginning of August. That’s more than one per day! These include outbreaks caused by bacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites. Implicated foods included raw milk, raw shellfish, mushrooms, cheese, ice cream, and chicken. Several restaurants were also implicated.
Note that the CDC and FDA also track and report outbreaks that occur in the U.S., but I like foodsafetynews.com because they are global.
As you will learn in class, there are many effective ways to control microbes and other infectious agents in foods. Still, for reasons we will discuss, many pathogens manage to contaminate even processed foods and cause disease.
Addressing this challenge will require a little food science background, but perhaps even more so, an understanding of microbial ecology, physiology, and genetics. That’s where we will begin this week.
Image courtesy of foodsafetynews.com