🔘 Food Hygiene

*FOOD HYGIENE* 

■ *Some Definitions* 

– Hygiene

– Food Hygiene

– Food Spoilage

– Food Contamination

– Food borne diseases (Food poisoning).

■ Types and Characteristics of Microorganisms that affect food.

 👉🏻  *Food Hygiene* 

■ Hygiene : Conditions and practices that help to 

maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases.

■ Food Hygiene:

 Conditions and measures necessary to 

ensure safety of food from production to consumption.

■ Lack of adequate food hygiene = Food borne diseases even death.

– Food can become contaminated at any point during 

slaughtering, harvesting, processing, storage, 

distribution, transportation, and preparation.

 👉🏻    *Food Spoilage* 

■ Definition: Changes in food through physical, chemical 

enzyme deterioration or micro-organism growth, that 

lead to the food becoming damaged, inedible or unsafe 

if eaten.

■ The food has visible signs of deterioration which makes 

it appear unpalatable or unpleasant.

■ The rate of deterioration depends on a variety of factors.

■ Contaminants may be already present in the food e.g. 

salmonella in chicken or transferred to the food by 

humans, flies, rodents and other pests.

👉🏻  *Food Spoilage* 

■ Deterioration in quality may be due to:

– Poor Storage Conditions, 

e.g incorrect temperature 

and/or humidity conditions which accelerates the 

ripening process as a result of enzymes.

– Damage or bruising of food which exposes surfaces 

to oxygen again accelerating the ripening.

– Action of microbes : Bacteria, moulds or yeast.

👉🏻  *Food Contamination* 

■ Definition: Introduction or presence of any substance or 

agent that might render food unsafe or unsuitable for 

human consumption.

■ Food contaminated with heavy metals or with naturally 

occurring toxins can also cause long chronic health 

problems including cancer and neurological disorders.

👉🏻  *Hazards that can contaminate food* 

■ Food can be contaminated by the following three main hazard types:

– Physical contaminants (foreign objects): Metal, wood, glass, …etc.

– Chemical contaminants : Bleach, detergents, pesticides,…etc.

– Biological contaminants: e.g. Parasites (tape-worm), toxic 

mushrooms, or leaves, etc.

– Microbiological contaminants: Bacteria, viruses, moulds and 

parasites.

■ The contaminated food does not show signs of contamination and 

looks and tastes and smells fine. It can cause serious illness or death.

👉🏻 *Food Poisoning* 

■ Also called Food borne disease and Food borne illness.

■ Definition: Illness caused by eating or drinking a 

contaminated food or beverage.

■ Food borne disease outbreak occurs when two or more 

people get the same illness from the same contaminated 

food or drink.

👉🏻 What harm does Food poisoning 

cost?

■ Human Suffering

■ Medical expenses

■ Work absenteeism

■ Productivity loss

■ Permanent disability

■ Death

👉🏻 *Bacterial food poisoning* 

■ Most common food poisoning is bacterial food poisoning.

■ Micro-organisms can occur naturally in the environment or 

cereals, vegetables, fruits, animals, people, water, air, soil.

■ Most bacteria are harmless but a small number can cause 

illness.

■ Antimicrobial resistance is a growing global health concern. 

Overuse and misuse of antimicrobials in agriculture and animal 

farms, in addition to human clinical uses, is one of the factors 

leading to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.

👉🏻  *Symptoms of Bacterial Food Poisoning* 

■ Bacterial Food poisoning can be mild, moderate or severe.

■ The symptoms will be different depending on what type of 

bacteria is responsible.

■ Common symptoms include:

– Nausea and Vomiting

– Diarrhoea

– Abdominal Pain

– Tiredness and fatigue

– Headache

– Fever

– Death in severe cases.

Bacterial food poisoning occurs when pathogen (micro-organism) 

or its toxin is consumed.

■ Mainly 2 types:

– Food intoxication

– Food borne infection

■ Food intoxication.

■ Illness resulting from consumption of exotoxin produced by 

organisms growing in food product.

■ When food is ingested, it is the toxin responsible for disease not 

the organism.

👉🏻   *Common FOOD INTOXICATION are:* 

■ Staphylococcus aureus

■ Clostridium botulinum

■ Clostridium perfringens

■ Bacillus cereus

👉🏻  *Food-Borne Diseases (Micro-organism 

responsible).* 

■ Requires consumption of living organism.

■ Symptoms do not appear for at least 12 hours after ingestion.

■ Thorough cooking of food before consumption will kill organism.

■ Caused by:

– Salmonella

– Campylobacter

– Escherichia coli (E.coli)

– Listeria Monocytogenes (LM).