What are ways food born diseases can be spread?

Answer 1

There are many ways.

1. Improper storage. If you don't keep things at the proper temperature, or you allow meat to thaw and refreeze before preparing it and serving it, you will get sick.

2. Cross-contamination. That is when pathogens are spread from something tainted to something that isn't. Lets supposed you have some frozen meat. You decide to put it in the refrigerator to defrost before cooking it. But then you forget about it. Then lets suppose that three days later, blood or other juices drip from the meat onto the lettuce on the next shelf. You might notice that the meat doesn't smell right and throw it out, but then you fix yourself a salad from the lettuce that sat under the rotten meat and cannot understand why you are sick.

Or, take for example if you start to cut a chicken on the counter top. You slice into it and realize it doesn't look nor smell right. You conclude it is spoiled and throw it away. But then you decide to chop something else on the same surface without thoroughly cleansing it, thus contaminating that food with the bacteria from the spoiled meat.

3. Faulty equipment. Lets suppose your refrigerator is plugged into a loose outlet. You have meat in the freezer. Then you go to work. While you are gone, a loud noise or vibration causes the plug to make poor contact, and the refrigerator stops working. Then by the time you open the refrigerator next, the plug manages to make contact again, and you have no idea anything is wrong. But the meat in the freezer thawed out and started freezing again. You might notice something is off about the appearance and assume it is ice crystals, and then you eat it and get very sick.

4. Improper manufacturing or production practices. Maybe a disgruntled food worker deliberately contaminates food at a packing company as a form of sabotage. Or maybe a vegetable farm is located downstream from a hog farm and the lagoon waste gets into the irrigation water. Then the hogs get sick and their sickness gets sprayed onto the crops.

5. Improper preparation. Lets suppose you have some pork and don't realize it has worms in it. Or you have frozen vegetables that are unknowingly contaminated with E. coli bacteria. Now, if you don't fully cook these items, you could get sick.