The Correlation of Scombroid Poisoning and The Rotting Process, and The Role It Plays in Food Safety

Coming in to class on Tuesday, having written my pre-investigation on scombroid fish poisoning, I was eager to hear what my classmates had written about for their investigations, and also what we would learn about food sanitation from Dr. Caswell. While reading and discussing my classmates’ diverse papers, I found one to be particularly interesting and somewhat similar to my paper. Brandon Townsend’s paper about rotting foods peaked my interest, as I discovered that the way foods rot is very similar to the way fish becomes infested with scombroid poisoning. Early in his paper, Brandon stated “The rotting process begins when bacteria discover the unprotected food supply and begin to break it down by means of chemical reactions, this begins the moment the plant or animal dies, but can take a very long time to become visible if the other contributors are held back.” The “contributors” that Brandon referred to were air, water, light, and heat. Most anyone knows that exposing fresh foods to these four elements will assist in the rotting process, but until Brandon explained the process to us, I never knew the science behind it. I learned that air rots foods by giving harmful microorganisms on the food the oxygen they need to grow rampantly, water rots foods by acting as a catalyst in harmful chemical reactions, light rots foods by photodegradation that suffocates the foods vitamins and color, and high temperature rots foods in the same way air does, it gives microorganisms a perfect breeding ground. I felt that Brandon’s paper had a similar connection to mine, as I wrote about the fact that scombroid poisoning develops from fish not being stored at a proper temperature. Similarly to how he stated that warm temperatures let microorganisms grow on the food, I stated that warm temperatures allowed the histidines to grow rampantly on the fish.

  After discussing the sciences of food safety and sanitation with the class, we moved into the kitchen to have a thought provoking conversation with Chef Gary regarding the need for restaurant employees to be licensed in food safety and sanitation. We learned about the prevalence of food poisoning, as stated by Murphy et al. “According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2009), regardless of the fact that the food supply in the United States is one of the safest in the world, it estimates that each year 76 million cases of foodborne illness occur and more than 300,000 persons are hospitalized and 5000 die from foodborne illness” (2001, p. 1). Shocked by these numbers, the class and I then watched chef Gary go through the entire kitchen, and in just a few short minutes he displayed numerous ways a kitchen employee could easily contaminate food. We then discussed that even though unknowing restaurant employees can contaminate food so easily, and it seems like they all should be required to have a license in food safety, it may not be a feasible task. Considering there are nearly 1.6 million restaurant employees in the U.S. alone, how could we ensure each one was licensed? Is it worth it to require a food safety license for all restaurant employees? Chef Gary left us with this question to contemplate and answer on our own in our investigation papers.

  In my opinion, the U.S. should start requiring all restaurant employees to be licensed in food safety and sanitation. Kitchen and restaurant jobs are often seen as jobs for the low class, consisting largely of past criminals or struggling immigrants. Often, employees in kitchen positions do not stay for long, and the employee turnaround time is short. But why are these jobs seen as such careless and lowly positions when the customer’s health and even life are at stake! If barbers, hair stylists, nail technicians, and pet groomers need licenses, shouldn’t restaurant employees? Certainly we can see from the millions of cases of foodborne illness in a given year that there needs to be a change. Requiring kitchen employees to have a license would not only decrease the amount of foodborne illness we see each year, but would also make kitchen jobs a more respectable and long lasting career.

References

Murphy, K. S., DiPietro, R. B., Kock, G., & Lee, J. (Stephen). (2011). Does mandatory food

   safety training and certification for restaurant employees improve inspection outcomes?

International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30, 150–156.

   https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.04.007