Foodregulations in the United States hold a strict policy against pathogens infood. Companies must be informed about the safety regulations of products beforegiven to the consumer. There are multiple federal agencies that are specifiedto regulate the safety of food. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is afederal agency that promotes the health and safety control of products beingsold to the public. In the food industry, the FDA is the main agency thatenforces the safe standards for meat, poultry, and fresh eggs.
The agency is incharge of preventing health hazards and the spread of disease. If there is anoutbreak, the FDA must recall items and find the source of the break. The FDAmust protect the public and implement the regulations to prevent outbreakscaused by manufacturers. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) isthe second federal agency that is in charge of the fresh produce, farming,agriculture, and planting of food. This agency implements the farmingregulations to protect farms and its natural resources. Both the FDA and USDArequire a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) program for foodproduction companies to avoid hazards that can potentially happen. To prevent adisease outbreak food companies must have an understanding of the HACCP plan ahave it implemented before touching food.
This plan is used to prevent andavoid hazards that can potentially happen during the food process. The benefitsof a HACCP plan is that it can be followed and used for the whole foodproduction process. This includes the growing of plants, food production,packaging, deliver, etc. There are seven critical points of HACCP that acompany must apply in case of an outbreak.
To find the source a company mustconduct a Hazard Analysis, identify critical control points, critical limits,corrective actions, record keeping, and verification to keep the public safe. Potentially hazardous food can betested to check if it can be dangerous for consumption. The in class experimentwas focused on food from the Arbor Grill at California State University Northridge.The product our group tested was the non-temperature abused Vegan wrap. Thepurpose of the lab was to see if the wrap was hazardous to consume. By testing theproduct we can potentially find the source of contamination and how it wascontaminated. The possibility of the food being contaminated could be trackedto the processing, packaging, or preparation at CSUN.
To test the food, multiplemethods were used to test for positive results for staphylococcus, clostridium,or salmonella. Using the media at the right temperature, coliforms will form toshow a positive sign of bacteria. Salmonella is most commonly found in lettucecaused by the juice formed inside the plastic packaging bags. Because lettuceis transported in bags the moisture causes Salmonella to grow.
Salmonella canbe present in fresh and raw food because it was not exposed to high temperature.The vegan wrap we tested was not temp abused which makes it a higher chance of beingcontaminated. After multiple experimentation we were able to test the productand see if it was free of contamination and safe to consume and followed thesafe eating standards of California.
