Poorly monitored food storage leads to illness for 55

The recent holiday season offered many opportunities to eat, drink – and generally – be merry. However a group of party-goers in the US were left with the prospect of being ill over Christmas, after an aggressive outbreak of food poisoning.

After a seasonal office party, 55 people came down with symptoms so persistent that 25 of them had to be hospitalised. The incident occurred in Florida, and the local government authorities have opened a case to quickly find the root of the problem.

Violation of good food practices

The company that provided catering for the event – Kitchen Divas – has been seriously questioned. As quoted by WESH Orlando – a subsidiary of NBC – company owner Susan Kocay explained that “food for the event was stored at her home.”

Of course, this is a serious breech of regulations, and represents general bad practice when it comes to industrial food storage and transportation.

State inspectors spent six hours with Mrs Kocay, in efforts to get to the bottom of why the multitude of bad decisions were made. While this process of cross-examination is relatively standard, the authorities were quick to point out that the investigation is still very much ongoing.

Dain Weister, public information officer for the Florida Department of Health, explained that any outbreak of food poisoning could be due to negligence from a number of stakeholders. “It could be the food itself, or the supplier of the food,” Mr. Weister explained to the Orlando Sentinel.

Bacteria contamination

Regardless of who is ultimately to blame, the most probable cause of the outbreak is the buildup of bad bacteria in the food.

Cross-contamination and insufficiently tracking changes in temperature can both lead to increased levels of bacteria buildup, significantly heightening the chances of food poisoning.

Staphylococcus aureus – or staph – is one of the most common bacterias which builds up in incorrectly prepared and transported food. The Florida Department of Health was quick to surmise that this is the likely bacteria that caused this latest outbreak of illness.

Data loggers and temperatures

The effective use of a data logger is a simple way to keep track of food temperatures in a professional environment, making sure that incorrect practices don’t become commonplace.

On Australian shores, the Food Safety Standards can impose fines on companies that continually flout the rules.

All businesses involved in the preparation of food should use a device such as the testo 175 T2, which features a probe to measure the core temperature of produce, ensuring that the risks of bacteria buildup can be controlled and kept to an absolute minimum.