Condensation contamination hazards in meat processing facilities

Bartholomew, G.W. (2015). Hazard analysis of incidental condensation contamination in food manufacturing facilities. Food Safety. August/September 2015. Retrieved online: http://www.foodsafetymagazine.com/magazine-archive1/augustseptember-2015/hazard-analysis-of-incidental-condensation-contamination-in-food-manufacturing-facilities/

The trade publication Food Safety Magazine contains a wealth of information on the topic including Bartholomew's (2015) analysis of how condensation is a particular hazard for the meat processing industry. The author of the article is the director of food safety/Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) affairs at Smithfield Foods. The information contained in this article is important for my section on the processing stage of food production, a key stage where contamination is possible and especially in the meat processing industry. Although much of the information is highly technical, it does discuss the pathogens that can be present and how to prevent them.

Caswell, J.A. (1991). Economics of Food Safety. New York: Elsevier.

This book contains a number of different essays, all of which are relevant to a study of food safety. More importantly, the essays contained in this book are pertinent for policy makers. The authors discuss the ways "invisible hazards" and "imperfect knowledge" make food safety issues more challenging, while also focusing specifically on financial considerations (p. 3). As I wanted to discuss multiple issues related to food safety, I found especially important the need to understand food safety from a global perspective. This book helps me to formulate my argument about food safety in a world where consumers eat food from a number of different countries and sources that cannot be controlled through legislation.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2015). Food safety. Retrieved online: http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/

I appreciated this source because the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (2015) offers direct access to statistics and concise information related to food safety. Included in this section of the website are sections on specific foodborne illnesses and pathogens, as well as an A-Z listing of the specific illnesses for further research. The website also has a section on the challenges to food safety, related to issues like transportation and distribution. Through this website, I first learned that food safety requires a thorough examination of the sources of food and how food is being processed and transported, and not just how it is being prepared.

FDA (2015). Foodborne illness and contaminants. Retrieved online: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodborneIllnessContaminants/

Like the CDC (2015) website, the FDA (2015) website is easy to navigate while also being a credible, reliable, and up-to-date source of information. The FDA is responsible in large part for food safety in America, and monitors many programs that oversee specific food safety issues including those related to the most dangerous concerns such as pesticides. Also, this website was instrumental in helping me envision the structure of my research as I wanted to discuss food safety at different levels of production. The different types of threats including bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, and chemical toxins are all listed here and discussed in plain language.

"How Does Mercury Get Into Fish?" (2011). Scientific American. Dec 30, 2011. Retrieved online: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-does-mercury-get-into/

When I started to research food safety and came upon information related to mercury in fish, a Google search yielded this article in Scientific American. Although the publication is for a general audience, its articles are of good quality and researched well. This article helped me to understand what mercury is, why it is dangerous, how it makes its way into the food chain, and what consumers can do to protect themselves. While not an exhaustive resource, it did help a newcomer to this information begin my research and investigation. The article provided me with food for thought on my section on source toxins, and how they can be the most dangerous.

Margai, F. (2013). Environmental Health Hazards and Social Justice. Rutledge.

The more research I conducted, the more interested I became in the social justice and political concerns related to food safety. It was immediately apparent to me that people in developing nations face the highest risk for food contamination and related illnesses. What shocked me was learning that in the United States, access to safe sources of food is also a matter of social justice as factories and other sources of pollution tend to be located in areas with poor and politically disenfranchised people. Those people then live closer to places with contaminated soil. These important problems are explored in depth in this book.

Minnesota Department of Health (2013). Food contamination and foodborne illness prevention. Retrieved online: http://www.health.state.mn.us/foodsafety/prevention.html

One of the most well-known aspects of food safety is hygiene at the point of food preparation, both in commercial facilities like restaurant kitchens, and also at home. This website clarifies the specific methods that should be used to promote food safety in any kitchen. This website shows that the most important food safety threats at the stage of food preparation includes inadequate hand washing, cross-contamination, storage and cooking temperatures, and the contamination of food by animal waste (Minnesota Department of Health, 2013). I discuss each of these issues in my research, pointing out that the stage of food preparation is the only one that consumers do have direct control over as most people eventually cook their own food.