The Soaring Costs of Hazardous Food-Handling – Up, Up and Away!

Salmonella, Listeriosis, Norovirus: The microscopic villains of the food service industry. Make the wrong move and these no-goodniks will give you sick customers, bad press, recall edicts and expensive legal hassles. As if you weren’t already concerned about the negative consequences of unsafe food handling, take a look at this article published recently in the LA Times. According to a new study by Georgetown University, the health-related costs of food-borne illnesses come close to a whopping $152 billion…a year. The study was released in an effort to push a food safety bill that would increase U.S. inspections, fund research and force the American food industry to ramp up record-keeping efforts, a bill which has stalled since last November.

But bill or no bill, making a heroic effort to keep supreme control over the food safety of your establishment is a smart choice. Fight BAC®! Fight bacteria that is, with these four key techniques as established by the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food Safety program Be Food Safe:

                                     - Clean carefully
                                     - Separate to avoid cross-contamination
                                     - Cook to appropriate temperatures
                                     - Chill in a timely fashion

Remember, we professional foodies genuinely know what evil lurks in the hearts of romaine, so it’ll always be one of our most important tasks to keep those nefarious pathogens at bay.