Saturday 26 November 2011

From botulism salmonella-America's most notable food safety stories


Want to know the quickest way to scare someone? To get to the Super in your local market. No, I am not talking about the rise of food prices, although this is enough to increase blood pressure more people! I speak for all products of contaminated food could be heard in the last century, most recently the peanut and pistachio debacle. If you ever have wondered what some of the most notorious food scares in recent years have hundreds or more, we have the low down.

From mad cows to salmonella in peanut butter, such cases can leave even the most intelligent person scratching his head wondering how, or one of the most technologically advanced and highly regulated countries like the United States could allow so many polluting elements fall through the cracks. In fact, the USDA now estimates that account food safety problems for 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths annually. Here are some notable milestones in the history of U.S. food safety.

It all started when ...

As you look back in history, you can see that while there was an increase of food affecting in recent years, food preparation and sanitation has improved dramatically in recent years hundreds or so. Interestingly, the phrase "food poisoning" does not appear on the public stage until the 1880s, when scientists first made the connection between animal disease and meat-poisoning outbreaks. This prompted better hygiene practices, but it was also the beginning of the hundred-plus years "food."

The next big panic food was not until the publication of his novel the jungle, Upton Sinclair in 1905. This book spotlight on disgusting practices of the Chicago meatpacking district and then asked President Theodore Roosevelt to set new standards for food processing. The President was a petty organismal Meatpacking operation and the first pure food and Drugs Act which the country has ever seen.

In 1963 the tuna industry was destroyed when two women died of their Detroit contracted botulism is eating canned tuna. Tuna sales decreased as a result of a massive 35% national and prompted the industry to form a "contingency Commission tuna." Botulism horizontal also problem in 1971. Manufacturer Bon Vivant fell victim of the effects of the toxin when an elderly couple was paralyzed after eating contaminated vichyssoise. Bon Vivant filed for bankruptcy within a month and spent the next several years trying to identify the source of the toxin.

Go ahead in 1982 when seven people in Chicago died by taking Extra-strength Tylenol that was laced with lethal amounts of cyanide. While on Friday, Johnson & Johnson was not to blame for this panic, did pull the product from all retail shelves across the country. During this period more than 35 million bottles of Tylenol were returned and inspected by officials of the Ministry of health. Although never recorded until the real culprit, it did prompt pharmaceutical companies to introduce more stringent manufacturing practices and new tamper-proof packaging to keep consumers safe.

An ongoing food fear is the ability of beef infected with mad cow disease, which can lead to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans (both diseases attack the nervous system). Although the United States has seen a handful of cases either the human or bovine form of the disease, in the case of possibly tainted school lunch meat-prompted the largest beef recall in the history of the United States to date with a total of 143 million pounds recalled in April 2008.

The most recent fears happened at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 with salmonella found to both pistachios and peanuts. Nearly 700 diseases and deaths in nine recorded by March 2009 due to this epidemic. In both cases, the causes appear to specify practices. Outbreaks forced peanut Corp. of America to shut down in January of 2009 and for Kraft foods to reevaluate their storage and processes.

Other cases over the years include beef containing e. coli, frozen Strawberry spread of hepatitis a and tomatoes and jalapeno peppers tainted with salmonella.

While the food was the cause of many diseases and in some cases death did question radical improvements in sanitation and the supply of food. While there will always be food safety issues, if developers learn from their mistakes (and we hope to do) they can prevent future outbreaks and great food.







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