Category: Dairy, Pet Food, Beverage, Prepared Food & Ingredients, Laboratory, Produce, Seafood & Aquaculture, Dietary Supplements, Food Service, Potable Water, Meat & Poultry, Milling & Grain, Food Safety
NOW available: Kit Inserts. Find your copies here.
January 03, 2019
Last year’s outbreak of the foodborne pathogen Cyclospora in pre-made salad mixes brought a sometimes-overlooked type of pathogen into the forefront of people’s minds once again: parasites.
Some of the most well-known culprits behind food recalls are bacteria that live or die based on environmental conditions, like Salmonella, Listeria and E. coli. While parasites and bacteria might be present in environments that aren’t closely monitored for threats, parasites are organisms that live on or in another living host, gaining sustenance at the expense of said host. Cyclospora is a single-cell parasite that, like most other foodborne parasites, cause food poisoning symptoms like diarrhea, fatigue and cramps.
The World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations have zeroed in on the top foodborne parasites around the world. They based their list on the sheer volume of illnesses caused, global distribution, morbidity, mortality, trade relevance and socio-economic impact, among other factors.
The top 10 are:
The study goes into great detail on the symptoms a person would experience, it is worth a read through for any food safety professional in today’s global food chain. Cyclospora comes in at number 13 on the source list, so we did not cover it above. Other well-known parasites that affect the food system are Giardia duodenalis and Taenia saginata.
As many of these parasites are waterborne, water testing is key for their detection, as it is with certain bacterial pathogens. And, as always, key food safety practices — such as sanitizing surfaces thoroughly, washing produce and washing hands — are critical in the kitchen (both commercial and residential) to prevent their spread.
Category: Dairy, Pet Food, Beverage, Prepared Food & Ingredients, Laboratory, Produce, Seafood & Aquaculture, Dietary Supplements, Food Service, Potable Water, Meat & Poultry, Milling & Grain, Food Safety
Sign up for NEOGEN updates