Overall Review - SA

Short answer questions for over all review

List 5 Major sources of food borne pathogens in foods and indicate the measures that should be implemented to reduce their incidence in foods

Major sources of food borne pathogens
1. Food handlers
2. Surfaces that come in contact with food
3. Food processing equipment
4. Sewage treatment plant
5. Pathogens from harvest or slaughter
6. Improper cooking of the food or inefficiently processed canning process
7. Environment
8. Shellfish from polluted water
9. Corn and cereals
Can be reduced by various methods:
1. Hygiene
2. Cooking food thoroughly
3. Removal of soil and sediments
4. Using additives
5. Reducing Temperatures
6. Having better sanitation and manufacturing processes
7. Use of bacteriophages spray
8. Ensuring that personal responsible for food handling are certified

How an understanding of the microbial sources in food can be helpful to a food microbiologist

- be aware of potential hazards
- developing methods of controlling or inhibiting unwanted microbes
- prevention techniques
- prevent growth
- solve spoilage
- preservation and food safety

List factors ensuring the food safety quality

- HACCP systems (hazard analysis critical control point)
- Sanitation
- Good manufacturing practices (GMP)
- Tougher punishments for food safety violators
- Adhering to food safety standards
- Improved pathogen sampling programs
- Reducing or eliminating the use of human antibiotics on boiler chickens, cattle, hog and turkey farms

Louis Pasteur designed an elegant "Swan-necked flask" experiment to disapprove the theory of "spontaneous generation" in a way that allowed access to air but not microbes. What would have happened if there had been spores in Pasteur's swan-necked experiment?

- spores in Pasteur's flask would have germinated, grown and disproved his theory

If 99% of bacteria are non-culturable, how do we know they are there? Speculate

- because the cases of half of food borne illness cases are unknown
-

Can you think of another experiment that would disprove spontaneous generation? How would food safety be affected if there were spontaneous generation?

Using flasks with cotton plugs that would allow O2 to enter but not the microbes. If spontaneous generation were true, it would show growth and no microbe killing process would work.

Ways to fight food borne illness epidemic

1. Sound sanitization programs
2. Effective Surveillance programs/methods to track foodborne illnesses
3. Vaccinations to build immunity into affected populations

List at least three factors that you think would result in an underestimation of microbial levels

- injured or non culturable cells that cannot form colonies on plates
- Growth conditions not ideal for microbial growth
- Food inherent characteristics
Improper sampling and processing
Coalescence of colonies and growth of spreaders

If a food safety test is negative for bacterial pathogens, why doesn't that guarantee a safe product?