Food safety – are we exaggerating?

Food safety has been a developing discipline for the past decades and is now quite well known to everyone not just the few food safety specialists. Over the years there have been number of cases that prompted public discussion into food safety and what the norm for safe preparation of food should be. We have seen a rise in food safety legislation and more stringent rules that apply to every business providing food to customers. Are we doing too much, enough or is there still room to improve?

We should start at the beginning of the reform of food safety legislation in Australia. Famously tragic incident – Garibaldi Smallgoods. In 1994-1995, four year old died, 22 developed a severe lifelong health issues and dozens became sick after eating uncooked semi-dry fermented sausage contaminated with e.coli O111. After a 16 years long legal battle the case was settled in 2011 and Garibaldi is no longer in operation. This horrific outbreak of e.coli food poisoning has changed the views on food safety in Australia. Regardless of the change there have been concerning number of food safety incidents across Australia ever since.

Let’s have a look at some cases of the past 10 years:

2007

• Approximately 20 people fell ill after eating chicken and lamb guvech at a Turkish restaurant. Samples tested positive for Clostridium Perfringens – spore forming organism indicating inadequate cooling of food.
• 319 people fell ill after consuming food containing raw egg mayonnaise. Samples tested positive for Salmonella. This was marked as the “worst food poisoning outbreak in NSW”
• 4 dead in a nursing home due to Salmonella food poisoning.

2012

• 22 people contracted Staphylococcal food poisoning after eating buffet food at an elite sporting evet

2014

• 220 people fell ill with Salmonellosis after eating undercooked egg products linked to an egg farm.

2015

• At least 110 people fell ill after eating at a family restaurant. Raw eggs are suspected cause of this outbreak.

2016

• 40 people hospitalized after consuming food from a local bakery contaminated with Salmonella.
• 54 suspected cases of Salmonella food poisoning from eating ready-to-eat lettuce
• 1 dead and at least 6 hospitalised after listeria outbreak

These are just a few incidents that made the headlines, however the statistics of Department of Health are more alarming. Estimated 5.4 million cases of food borne illness occur annually. That is approximately 1 in 4 Australians experiences food poisoning every year.

So the question is: Are we doing enough? The answer is: No! We still hear about preventable food safety incidents from sources that should have been heavily regulated. We still see small business owners preparing and selling food without food safety planning in place. 1 out of 4 of us still get sick from food poisoning bacteria every year. Even in this era of information being readily at hand we have businesses that don’t know or understand their food safety obligations.

There is no time for complacency when food safety is at stake. The history has proven complacency to be fatal not only to the individuals but also to the businesses. Cliché phrase: “Fail to prepare – prepare to fail” cannot be more true in food industry. It cost less to prepare than deal with the consequences.