Food Safety: Biological Agents

Abstract

In the next two chapters I will explore the safety issues surrounding the one product which all Americans consume every day, namely food. In this chapter I will discuss biological (infectious) agents, and in Chapter 13 I will discuss problems associated with chemicals in food. Infectious agents spread through food are acquired via the ingestion route and not surprisingly include many of the same agents implicated in waterborne disease. However, there are several differences which make food a more dangerous vehicle of transmission than water. Whereas water is provided to communities from a central source with a controlled treatment facility and distributed through closed mains to the consumer, food comes from multiple sources and goes through multiple handling steps including those of final home or restaurant preparation. Thus, there are multiple opportunities for contamination and mishandling. In addition, although water is a carrier of pathogens, it does not provide a good medium for growth and multiplication. Many foods, on the other hand, particularly those which are proteinaceous, lend themselves to proliferation to high concentrations, especially when temperatures are in the mesophilic (near body temperature) range.