Food Safety Flash!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Food Safety Issue- Botulism

My first time came across this term is during subject FPQA conducted in year 2, knowing that it's related to can food and food safety issue. Recently, I happened to read this article called 'Botulism' in WHO web. Here is the summary of what I learned from the article.

Generally, human botulism is an foodborne intoxication caused by extremely potent toxins preformed in foods which is Bacterium Clostridium Botulinum. Transmission of botulism between human is imposssible. However, wound infections or intestinal infection in infants are exceptional. Type A, B, E and rarely F cause human botulism. Types C, D and E cause illness in mammals, birds and fish. Sporulated form of bacterium is commonly present in soils, aquatic sediments and fish. Under anaerobic conditions, the heat-resistant spores can germinate and toxin is produced by bacterium.

12 to 36 hours after exposure to bacterium, symptoms caused by toxin appears. These are usually include dry mouth,double or blurred vision, difficulty swallowing, muscle weakness, drooping eyelids,difficult breathing, slurred speech,vomiting, urinary incontinence and sometimes diarrhea. Though cases of botulism is low, the mortality rate is high if treatment is not immediately imposed.

Good food preparation practices and hygiene ought to be implemented to prevent outbreak of botulism. Inactivation of the bacterial spores in heat-treatment canned products or by inhibiting growth in all other products may also prevent botulism.

In cosmetic field, bacterium Clostridium Botulinum is used to produce Botox, an injection used for clinical and cosmetic application. Treatment is on one condition that purified and diluted A neurotoxin are being used. Injection of Botox is administered according need of patient. Some side effetcs might occur after the injection.

Article available at: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs270/en/index.html
References: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botulism

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

What is EB and S?

Osteomyelitis

The first day i reported to Ms. Teoh Sok Li, Head of Quality Assurance(QA) Department, she ordered me to assist a QA assisstant, named Yong. End of the day, I didn't do much but intro myself to other staffs in QA. So, it was an ice-breaking day!

Second day, there are chances for me to flip through some documents in QA office. From their daily laboratory card, I can clearly see that sensory assessment, physical test as well as microbe test are being run for certain products.

'EB' and 'S' which appear under microbe test catch my eyes. After verification, i got to know that EB stands for Enterobacteriaceae and S is Salmonella. EB are a large family of bacteria, including many of the more familiar pathogens, such as Salmonella and Escherichia coli. EB are rod-shaped, basically 1.5 micro meter in length. They are facultative anaerobes and possess Gram-negative stains.

Whereas Staphylococcus aureus is a sperical bacterium which cause a range of illnesses from minor skin infections, such as pimples, impetigo, boils, cellulitis folliculitis, furuncles, carbuncles, scalded skin syndrome and abscesses, to life-threatening diseases, such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis endocarditis, Toxic shock syndrome (TSS), and septicemia. Illness cause by Staph aureus is usually associated with hygiene aspetc as they are frequently living on human's skin and in nose. About 20-30% of population are 'staph carrier'

References :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staphylococcus_aureus

Photo available at:

http://images.google.com.my/imgres?imgurl=http://thefootblog.files.wordpress.com/2006/11/osteoforefoot.jpg&imgrefurl=http://thefootblog.org/2006/11/&h=417&w=534&sz=30&hl=en&start=4&tbnid=nTkMhBkni8UCXM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=132&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dstaphylococcus%2Baureus%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

Sunday, April 6, 2008

Tropical fruit- Soursop.

Neighboor gave us 2 soursops where the auntie said it's not local but origin from Sabah. Mum stored in fridge for few days and its skin turns black.

Today, i peeled it off while it's cold. The flesh of the fruit consists of an edible white pulp and a core of undigestible black seeds. The flesh's texture is pudding-liked, white in color, and taste like sweet mango! Compared to dragon fruit which contains uncountable seeds, seeds of soursop are kind of frustrated because they are large in size! I cant digest but to spit them out.

After some research done, I had found out that soursop is native to Carribean, Central and South America, and is commonly grown in South-East Asia. It is adapted to areas of high humidity and relatively warm winters, temperatures below 5 °C will cause damage to leaves and small branches, and temperatures below 3 °C can be fatal.

Nutritionally, the fruit is high in carbohydrates, particularly fructose. The fruit also contains significant amounts of vitamin C, vitamin B1 and vitamin B2. People in Caribbean believe that laying the leaves of soursop on a bed below a person with a fever will break the fever by the next morning. Boiling the leaves and drinking as a tea are believed to induce sleep too!

Reference from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop

Photo available at: www.britannica.com/ebc/art-7486/Soursop

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Nestle

picture taken from panipat.nic.in/Nestle.htm

Founder Henri Nestlé developed the first milk food for infants in 1867, and saved the life of a neighbor’s child, the Nestlé Company has aimed to build a business based on sound human values and principles.

Nestlé with headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland was founded in 1866 and is today the world's biggest food and beverage company. It employs around 276 050 people and have factories or operations in almost every country in the world.

Nestle presents a wide range of products from beverages to chocolate, frozen foods, infant formula and petcare foods.