Bacteria Food Poisoning

Food borne illness is an ever-present threat that can be prevented with proper care and handling of food products. Chemicals, heavy metals, parasites, fungi, viruses and bacteria can cause food borne illness. Bacteria-related food poisoning is the most common, more than 90 percent of the cases of food poisoning each year are caused by:

• Staphylococcus
• Aureus
• Salmonella
• Clostridium perfringens
• Campylobacter
• Listeria monocytogenes
• Vibrio parahaemolyticus
• Bacillus cereus
• Entero-pathogenic
• Escherichia coli

These bacteria are commonly found on many raw foods. Normally a large number of food-poisoning bacteria must be present to cause illness. Therefore, illness can be prevented by:

1. controlling the initial number of bacteria present

2. preventing the small number from growing

3. destroying the bacteria by proper cooking

4. avoiding re-contamination

Prevention

• Assume all foods may cause foodborne illness and establish habits to prevent any causes of bacteria food poisoning.
• Wash hands, food preparation surfaces and utensils thoroughly before and after handling raw foods to prevent recontamination of cooked foods.

• Keep refrigerated foods below 5 degrees C (40 degrees F).
• Serve hot foods immediately or keep them heated above 60 degrees C (140 degrees F).
• Divide large volumes of food into small portions for rapid cooling in the refrigerator. Hot, bulky foods in the refrigerator can raise the temperature of foods already cooled.
• Remember the danger zone is between 5 degrees C (40 degrees F) to 60 degrees C (140 degrees F).
• Heat canned foods thoroughly before tasting.
• When in doubt, throw it out.

How to measure the freezer or refrigerator’s temperature? Testo AG offers variety of thermometers for food application. For monitoring temperature in freezer or refrigeration, testo 177-T1 and T2 are considered to be the most suitable. The testo 177-T1 professional datalogger monitors specified storage and transport conditions in the refrigeration and deep freezer sector efficiently and accurately over a period of months and years. Temperature fluctuations, which cause damage, are documented on the testo 575 fast printer port analysed on your PC via interface. Testo 177-T2, the professional datalogger with display. It provides you with a quick overview of the current reading. The last valued saved, max and min values and the number of times the limits were exceeded.All of the values collected by the testo 580 during long-term monitoring over months/ years can be sent to your notebook/ PC. Testo 177 temperaturedataloggers:

• Log temperatures with up to 48,000 readings
• Are specially for use in low temperatures (up to –40 degree C)
• Can be used on-site: fast documentation on the infrared printer, 6 lines/s
• Collect data on-site with testo 580 and download to your PC for analysis For applications that require external sensors, there is a:
• Penetration probe to check the food temperature in the refrigerator
• Frozen food probe to check the core temperature of the food in deep freezer
• Air probe to check storage temperature
• Mounting probe with aluminum sleeve (IP65) to check refrigeration/storeroom.

More Information What was that again – what exactly is the connection between germ multiplication and temperature? If you need answers to the above question, please contact testo, we will do our best to answer them. testo (Asia) Ltd Headquarters Asia/Pacific Units 1215-18 Delta House, 3 On Yiu Street, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong Tel: (+852) 2636 3800 Fax: (+852) 2144 5276 www. testo.com E-Mail: testo@testo.com.hk