Salmonella, Staphylococcus aureus, and Campylobacter – these are some of the bacteria which can cause food poisoning, illness, hospitalization, and death. No Bueno. And we didn’t even mention Listeria. It’s one of the nastier players. When you hear of a food-related fatality, Listeria is often the cause.
“Where The Food Comes From” visited the University of Georgia (UGA) Center for Food Safety on July 11, 2023 to discuss foodborne illnesses. Thank goodness we also talked about how to prevent them and what scientists are doing about them.
How about some not so fun facts? There are about 48 million cases of foodborne illnesses in the United States annually – that’s roughly one in six Americans. Now you may be asking where does all this nastiness come from? It comes from poor handling and contamination of the foods we eat like produce, meat, fish, dairy and poultry. So basically, everything we all consume on a daily basis.
The center’s Director, Professor Dr. Francisco Diez-Gonzalez, explained that the mission of the center is to study and control foodborne pathogens so that no one gets sick from a foodborne illness. No easy task.
Dr. Diez-Gonzalez gave Chip some very important scientific information, but there were a few things that struck me as totally fascinating. He explained the major causes of foodborne illnesses actually come from our own kitchens and how we handle our own food.
