Foodborne Illness In Leafy Greens: A Case Study

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The Effects of Foodborne Illness of Escherichia coli in Leafy Greens
Introduction
Food is a necessary and many times pleasurable part of everyday life. Bacteria are also a necessary part of everyday life, but not often thought of as pleasurable. Humans are made up of approximately 103 cells, and harbor about 104 bacteria cells (Davis 1996). It is shocking that the human body hosts more bacteria cells than its own body composition. Fortunately, most of these bacteria that live on and within the human body are beneficial for proper immune and digestive function (Davis 1996). They cause problems when they are associated with an immune compromised individual, or when other bacteria, viruses, or parasites break through the normal
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However, since some food borne illness do not show symptoms for up to 72 hours after the contaminated food is consumed, it can be very difficult to determine which food was the cause of the illness. Public health officials try to investigate the common food item that was responsible for the outbreak in order to prevent further contamination. The main program that tries to prevent food borne outbreaks from occurring is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also known as the CDC. The CDC has two surveillance systems that keep record of the outbreaks, the Waterborne Disease and Outbreak Surveillance System and the Foodborne Disease Outbreak Surveillance System (CDC …show more content…
The salads were called Field Fresh Chopped with Grilled Chicken and Mexicali Salad with Chili Lime Chicken (CDC 12.11.2013). These salads were produced by Glass Onion Catering (CDC 12.11.2013). On November 10, 2013 there was a voluntary recall of approximately 181,620 pounds of ready-to-eat salads and sandwich wrap products with fully cooked chicken and ham, because Glass Onion Catering had reason to believe that some of their product had become contaminated by STEC O157:H7 (USFDA 4.24.2014). The traceback investigation showed that the common ingredient was Romaine lettuce from a farm in California. The California Department Public of Health (CDPH) and the FDA tested the soil and water of the farm and the samples came back negative (USFDA 4.24.2014). The CDPH and the FDA noticed that there was a cattle operation in close proximity to the lettuce farm, and decided to take samples there to see if there was cross-contamination happening (USFDA 4.24.2014). As is turned out, the samples came back positive for STEC O157:H7. The FDA then informed the Califonia lettuce farm of the risks of harvesting ready-to-eat foods such as lettuce in close proximity to a cattle operation (USFDA 4.24.2014).There were four states affected by this outbreak, Arizona, California, Washington, and Texas (CDC 12.11.2013). There were Thiry-Three people affected by

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