Millions of bacteria live with us. Most of them are harmless (some live inside our bodies), and beneficial to us like Lactobacillus or LAB bacteria. However, 1% of the bacterial population make us sick. Among this 1% are the 7 most common disease-causing bacteria: Salmonella Spp, Eschericha coli  0157:H7, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium perfringens, Clostridium botulinum, Staphylococcus aureus, and Campylobacteria jejeuni.

These have caused millions of food-poisoning around the world yearly. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in the United States alone, around 48 million people get sick, 128,000 get hospitalized, and 3000 die from food-borne illnesses.

Typical symptoms of food poisoning include fever, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. Although people who fall ill recover from illness, some who are vulnerable (the young and old), would die from such poisoning. Pathogenic bacteria are mainly responsible for these food poisoning occurrences. Pathogenic bacteria, along with viruses, and parasites, fall under the biological hazards, one of the three recognized food safety hazards in the food industry. In any HACCP system, there should be zero tolerance to such hazard.

Salmonella Spp. or Salmonella

Salmonella Spp. is a gram-negative, rod-shaped facultative anaerobic bacterium. As part of the genus Salmonella, it has caused the most number of reported outbreaks in the United States every year. Cases of patients that do no see a doctor doesn’t count too in this figure!

The most usual symptoms that may last up to 7 days include nausea, chest pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. Severe illnesses may happen to very young patients, the orderly, and those with weak immune system.

Most cases of salmonellosis come from consuming contaminated meat, poultry and egg. Salmonella infection come from feces or waste from the animal. The is why an egg with a cracked shell isn’t advisable for consumption. Also, do not consume eggs raw unless they are pasteurized.

Eschericha coli  0157:H7

Most strains of Eschericha coli are harmless to humans. In fact, some live normally in the human intestinal tract without making us sick. However, some do us harm, including Eschericha coli 0157:H7. Eschericha coli 0157:H7 is a gram-negative, and rod-shaped bacterium,. This E. coli strain causes millions of food-poisoning cases yearly.

Most outbreaks by this strain result from eating undercooked or raw meat products, usually ground meat. Infection usually happens during slaughtering where animal wastes are present. Contaminated kitchen utensils, and surfaces that are used during food preparation are also causes of fecal contamination. Cases of E. Coli food poisoning have also been reported from consuming dairy products, fruits, and vegetables.

When one suffers from E. Coli food poisoning, he may experience fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea. Most cases reported the patients to experience bloody diarrhea. These symptoms usually last up to 10 days. As of this writing, there is no treatment for this type of food poisoning (antibiotics do not work either).

Listeria monocytogenes

Listeria Monocytogenes or Listeria is a gram-positive, and rod-shaped bacterium. Listeria Monocytogenes causes listeria, which targets the nervous system . Most patients experience fever, loss of balance, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, and muscle pain. These symptoms usually are experience for hours or days and last up to several weeks.

Since this bacterium can withstand low temperature, it usually infects food items stored in the refrigerator. Freezing food items only slows down the movement of microorganisms, but not destroy them. Reheat food, especially ready-to-eat ones like hot dogs and deli meat to kill any harmful bacteria.

Read more food safety tips regarding your refrigerator.

Clostridium perfringens

Clostridium perfringens is a gram-positive, rod-shaped, anaerobic, and spore-forming bacterium. Its ability to create spores enable it to withstand many food processes. Most food-poisoning cases caused by this bacterium resulted from consuming poultry, meat, gravy and sauces, and pre-cooked foods. Most food associated with  C. perfringens food poisoning are prepared in batches. And usually, they are kept for a considerable long time before serving. These cases usually happen at the cafe, hotels, restaurants, buffets, and cafeterias. Reheating food is must for these kinds of setting especially before serving. Refrigeration for leftover food is a must to slow down bacterial growth,

C. Perfringens food poisoning cause vomiting, abdominal cramps and diarrhea. These symptoms last up to 24 hours.

Clostridium botulinum

Clostridium botulinum is another gram-positive, rod-shaped, and anaerobic spore-forming bacterium known for producing the neurotoxin botulinum. The botulinum toxin is one of the most poisonous toxin known. Unlike most bacteria, Clostridium Botulinum does not need oxygen in order to grow. It is why this bacterium can live happily in food products deprived of oxygen like home-canned goods. The Botulinum toxins are found in various food items like fruits, vegetables, and meat products.

Botulism-contaminated home-canned goods usually occur due to improper processing. One should invest in a suitable pressure canner to do home canning properly. A pressure canner that cannot reach the required pressure will only turn the food into a breeding ground for bacteria.

Remember that Botulism is a potentially-fatal illness. At first, the patient will feel nausea, vomiting, weakness, dizziness a few hours after ingesting the contaminated food. Then the attack on the body’s nervous system will follow: double/blurred vision, trouble breathing, fatigue, dry mouth and throat, and lack of muscle coordination. Most deaths from botulism result from respiratory failure as part of complication. Patients who feel difficulty in breathing may need mechanical ventilation for months to a year.

You might also like: Home Canning: How To Tell If Food Has Gone Bad?

Check out this comprehensive post about this bacterium from FDA.

Staphylococcus aureus

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive, and round-shaped bacterium. This bacterium is usually associated with meat products, dairy products, and baked goods.

Remember that foods contaminated with Staphylococcus Aureus do not manifest signs of spoilage like foul odor or discoloration. Never place food in an environment with temperature inside the Danger Zone. The Danger Zone is anywhere from 40 °F (4 °C) to 140 °F (60 °C), the range where the growth of bacteria doubles in number in 20 minutes time.

The usual symptoms of Staphylococcal Food Poisoning include diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, headache, muscle and chest pain. These symptoms usually develop quickly and last for a day. Patients need to drink as much water as possible to hydrate from diarrhea. Rarely, patients develop severe illness and poisoning clears out on its own with 1 to 2 days.

Campylobacteria jejeuni

Campylobacteria Jejeuni is a gram-negative, and spirally-curve bacterium. This bacterium causes millions of food-borne illnesses in the U.S., New Zealand, and in Europe. Campylobacteria Jejeuni normally lives in the intestines of several animals like cattle, swine, rodents, birds, and shellfish. The typical symptoms of the disease include nausea, diarrhea, fever, abdominal pain, headache, and vomiting. Most people would recover from Campylobacteriosis on their own. However, some, especially the very young ones and the elderly with low immunity would need medical treatment.  

Most Campylobacteriosis (the disease caused by this bacterium) occur from consuming raw or undercooked meat. Transmission of Campylobacteria is more common during slaughtering of the animal where animal feces is present. Slaughter houses train workers and food handlers to prevent any forms of contamination. Nonetheless, as an end user, the consumer must thoroughly cook the meat to kill any harmful bacteria.

How To Prevent These Disease-Causing Bacteria

These pathogenic bacteria are harmful to everyone. But these are easily avoided if everyone follows a routine that prevents bacteria from multiplying.

Always keep everything clean before and after. Clean all cooking utensils, appliances, food contact surfaces, etc. to prevent cross- contamination. Before handling food items, thoroughly clean the hands with soap and water.

Prevent cross-contamination. Separate raw food from cooked. If placed together, the bacteria from the raw can contaminate the cooked. Implement this for food inside your refrigerator as well. Have a dedicated container for each food. The ready-to-eat, and cooked should at the top shelves and the raw food like meat at the bottom shelf. This prevents blood or juices from dripping to another food.

Cook food at a proper temperature. As a guide, cook food at at least 165°F (74°C) or higher. It is better to invest in a food thermometer.

Keep food properly. Cold food should stay cold and hot food should stay hot. Store cold food at 40°F (4.4°C) or below and hot food at 140°F (60°C) or higher. Never store food anywhere in the Temperature Danger Zone 40 °F(4.4°C)  and 140 °F (60°C). It is where bacteria doubles in number very quickly.

Check out this post to Know The Factors That Affect Growth of Harmful Microorganisms.

The post The 7 Most Common Disease-Causing Bacteria appeared first on The Food Untold.

Microorganisms specifically harmful ones or food borne pathogens (the ones that cause foodborne illnesses) require things in order to sustain their lives, just like us humans. Luckily for us, the Earth is abundant in everything for us to survive—like air, water and food. As for the microscopic world, there are 6 main factors that affect growth of harmful microorganisms or foodborne pathogens: food, acidity, time, temperature, oxygen and moisture.

Too many to remember? People in the food industry better know them as the FAT TOM, for fast memory retention.

Who is FAT TOM?

FAT TOM basically are the requirements for microbes to grow. With these factors or conditions at optimum levels, pathogens would be very happy to grow.

The bad thing is that it raises the chance of experiencing foodborne illness to us humans if contaminated food is consumed. And for most of the time, there’s no telling that because these microorganisms do not produce perceivable changes like in odor color. Unless we start exhibiting symptoms, which something we wouldn’t really like.

Regular training or seminar must be conducted in every organization so every personnel, especially food handlers, are aware of these. Most food safety classes would likely include FAT TOM at the start of the course.

By fully understanding FAT TOM, one would be able to maximize the food’s shelf life, know how to keep food from spoiling fast, promote proper food handling, and prevent foorborne illnesses.

Food

Pathogens very much like carbohydrates or protein-rich foods. It’s the main reason why food such as eggs, fish, meat and bread spoil faster than others. These perishables are what pathogens like salmonella and E. Coli love to live in. Storing them in low temperature environment like in a freezer slows their growth down.

Acidity (pH level)

The level of acidity of a substance (food) is measured by its pH level. The food industry works a lot on this pH level (with a scale of 1 to 14). Acidic substances have lower pH (less than 7) while basic substances have higher pH (more than 7). Neutral pH (neither acidic nor basic) has a pH of 7.

Pathogens grow well in low acidic environments, somewhere at 4.5 to 7.5. But too acidic environments (lower than 4.5) aren’t favorable to them. Food items like vinegar, tomatoes, pickled or soured products can make an environment too acidic for pathogens to survive.

Time

Food that can provide the necessities like nutrients and favorable pH level (low acid) will eventually spoil, even faster at optimum conditions. If you leave food at such condition for considerably long, the number of bacterial population in it could double in just 20 minutes. To better see the picture, a single bacterium could multiply in millions in just a few hours. Leaving food to stay in the Temperature Danger Zone for considerably long is even scarier.

The Temperature Danger Zone (TDZ) is a temperature range of 40°F (4°C ) to 140°F (60°C) where you don’t want your food to stay at for too long as bacteria growth is faster. Never put your food somewhere within this range for more than 2 hours. If you inevitably do, discard the food right away.

Temperature

Refrigeration of food slows down bacterial growth. However, removing the food out of refrigeration activates bacteria to multiply. The movement is even faster within the Temperature Danger Zone.

The general rule is to keep the food out of the Temperature Danger Zone. Keep hot food hot and keep cold food cold. Hot food should be at or above 140 (60°C). Hot food can be stored while maintaining its temperature in slow cookers, steamers or warming tray.

Cold food should stay at temperature of 40°F (4°C ) or below. Cold food can be placed in coolers or fridge to maintain their low temperature. Just make sure the fridge is working properly and is maintaining low temperature.

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When cooking food, it’s necessary to obtain a temperature high enough (at least 165°F) for a certain duration to kill pathogens.

Oxygen

Like humans do, bacteria need oxygen to live. Aerobic bacteria require an oxygenated environment to grow and thrive—most pathogens belong to this group. However, a few pathogens require no oxygen to live and are called anaerobic bacteria. One notorious anaerobic bacterium is Clostridium Botulinum, a pathogen that causes Botulism, a severe and potentially fatal food poisoning. Botulism usually occur from low acid canned products like fruits and veggies.

Another form of bacteria is facultative bacteria. They prefer to live with oxygen but not generally necessary in order to survive.

One common preservation method that deprive bacteria of oxygen is canning, something that we have been practicing since the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s.

The idea with canning is that the processed food is sealed in an airtight container. During processing, the heat removes air from the container and creates a vacuum seal later on. When done well, the food can be stored a minimum of one year.

Moisture

Aren’t we all used to reading instructions to keep food items in dry places? One reason for this is to prevent the growth of microorganisms as just like us, they also need water.

Pathogens are water or moisture- rich food loving microorganisms. Food scientists usually deal with calculating the amount of moisture content and water activity level in raw ingredients and finished products. As much as possible, they want to keep them low. For further discussion on water activity, visit this post: Water Activity (a_w) and Food Safety.

Over the years, people have developed ways to preserve food by depriving microorganisms of water. One of the most common and oldest ways of reducing moisture content is drying.

Another common way of reducing water is by osmotic dehydration using solutes such as sugar and salt. A process known as osmosis draws the moisture out of the food and to the surface where it evaporates. This method also directly eliminates the bacteria by dehydration by attacking their cell wall.

Since the earliest times, people have used sun drying, air drying and smoking to preserve food such as mushrooms, cereals, seafood like octopus and shrimps and fruits like grapes and oranges .

The post Factors That Affect Growth of Harmful Microorganisms appeared first on The Food Untold.