Food Safety [WLO: 4] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4]
Foodborne illness is all too common is today’s society. Some examples are outbreaks associated with chair restaurants and cruise ships. In the text of your first post, imagine that family members you care about want to take a cruise. Having (nearly) completed a course on the principles of epidemiology, you are the best suited family member to make sure the disease risks are properly managed. When you ask about how the operators prevent foodborne illness, you are told:
“There is absolutely nothing to worry about here! High cooking temperature will sanitize food even if it was at room temperature for six hours (not that our highly trained kitchen staff would ever do this). You can rest assured that after the food is cooked, there will be no remaining hazard to human health and that all the pathogenic material would destroyed.”
In the text of your post, how might you tactfully but persuasively educate the operator? At a minimum, mention what types of microbial organisms cause foodborne illness and the steps that can be taken to handle and store food safely in order to prevent the growth of foodborne pathogens.
