The U.S. Center of Disease Control and Prevention has released new findings and initiatives to prevent food borne illnesses reported every year in the country.
A new press statement released by CDC suggests that building awareness and implementing effective food safety measures in restaurants can help prevent or curb food borne disease outbreaks reported every year in the United Stated. The administrating body found many loop holes in current education of restaurant workers as well as public health surveillance.
The report reveals that each year 48 million people in the country fall ill due to food borne diseases, out of which 3,000 people die. Most often factors like food preparation and handling practices, worker health policies and hand-washing practices are unaccounted for when such illness outbreaks are reported, even though more than half the food borne illnesses are due to these factors.
"Inspectors have not had a formal system to capture and report the underlying factors that likely contribute to foodborne outbreaks or a way to inform prevention strategies and implement routine corrective measures in restaurants, delis and schools to prevent future outbreaks," said Carol Selman, head of CDC's Environmental Health Specialists Network team at the National Center for Environmental Health in the statement.
Articles published in the Journal of Food Protection have a list of precautions that should be observed to prevent food borne illnesses related to the consumption of ground beef, chicken, and leafy vegetables like lettuce and spinach. The articles also provide information on some more preventive techniques like not allowing ill workers to attend work and keeping employees well informed about the importance of hygiene and cleanliness while dealing with food served in their restaurants.
"We are taking a key step forward in capturing critical data that will allow us to assemble a big picture view of the environmental causes of foodborne outbreaks," Selman said.
A data surveillance system and e-Learning course will debut in early 2014. With these tools, state, and local public health food safety programs will be able to report data from environmental assessments as a part of outbreak investigations and prevent future food borne outbreaks in restaurants and other food service establishments.
Earlier in August, diners at Red Lobster and Olive Garden restaurants in Iowa and Nebraska caught an intestinal illness after eating a salad mix that came from Mexico, CNN reported. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration later confirmed that the salad had come from Taylor Farms de Mexico.
In October this year, a similar case was reported where Casa Mexicana, a Madisonville restaurant, was identified as the source of a Salmonella outbreak that affected 12 people, hospitalized five, and killed one.
Statistics reveal that of the 457 outbreaks reported in 2006 and 2007, 300, or 66 percent were restaurant associated. Of those, 98 percent, or 295, had at least one reported contributing factor, that is, a food safety violation that may have contributed to the outbreak. Of the 257 outbreaks with one single contributing factor, 64 percent were associated with food worker health and hygiene. Thirty-four percent were associated with food preparation practices, and 22 percent were associated with food that was contaminated before it reached the establishment.
