You are here: www.bacteriamuseum > general categories: food and water safety > food safety<
>Related: go to: water safety go to: good bacteria in food go to: professional files > food safety

Food safety

In our section on pathogenic bacteria you can learn about bacteria that cause disease. Many bacterial infections are caused by ingestion of contaminated food. Contamination of food often occurs at home, but can be easily prevented. Home hygiene is particularly important for children, elderly people, pregnant women and immuno-compromised people.

Do you want to know more about food safety, check these frequently asked questions. (source: FDA)
Or have fun with the Food safety page for kids, which includes a quizz, for kids and educators! (source: FSIS, USDA)
A very useful and informative site is the Fight bac home page (source: Partnership for food safety education)
Test yourself: is your kitchen safe? (source; FDA Consumer)
You can do a real internet course on food safety in four lessons (source: Iowa State Uni)
Cleaning or spreading bugs: what about your wiping cloth. (source: The Panhandle)

Special care should be taken when handling meat, fish and poultry. These products may have reached your fridge loaded with bacteria, without you knowing it. Make sure they are not spreaded to other food stuff, and that they are killed by proper heating. Talking about your fridge, make sure your refrigerator storage is up to standards (Source: Ohio State Uni )

If you want more information and further links on food handling and safety, check the food safety home page of the USDA/FSIS. Clear advise on water- and food handling for the traveller provides the food- and water safety sheet (Source: CDC).
Surprising finding: spices can protect bacteria in food from being killed by irradiation (Source: American Chemical Society).

Are you concerned about your safety? Do you use antibacterial cleaning liquid liberally? Consider this:

Many bacteria are good for you! Or, at the least, activate your immune system. Are we becoming obsessively clean? (SF Gate.com)
Bacteria can multiply in 30 minutes or less. Even if you would wipe out 95% of all bacteria in your kitchen, it would take less than 3 hours to get them back, provided they had enough to feed on. Dispose of food remains in a proper way. See bacteria multiply.(source: J.A.Sullivan: Cells alive)
The use of antibacterial agents can result in bacteria becoming resistant(Source: CNN interactive). This would make such agents useless, and could make elimination difficult. Therefore use your common sence when using antibacterial agents at home.(source: Scientific American)

More about antibiotics can be found in another subject catagory.
So why isn't anything done about food safety? Well, in fact, a lot is being done. One of the newest way of attacking the problem is to find contaminating bacteria that are 'glowing in the dark'. Read more about this novel way of identification (Source: Ag-West Bio).
Food safety is not our only concern. The water we drink must be safe as well. Visit our exhibit on Water safety. >From all this, it is obvious that bacteria can make us ill. However, not all bacteria are 'bad'. In fact, most are not, and our body is equipped with defenses against the odd bad bug. Read more about such defenses in our exhibit on the immune system. Know the risks. But do not overestimate them. Human beings are not supposed to live in a sterile environment. For instance, children need to encounter enough bacteria so that their immune system learns to deal with them.

The content of this page is copyright of the Virtual Museum of Bacteria and was written by Dr. T. M. Wassenaar (curator), with support of the Foundation for Bacteriology.

Choose another exhibit in this catagory or go to another catagory from the menue at the top of this page

Page last modified: 09 Mar 2007

Keep an eye on this site, we are reconstructing it and a new version will be online soon.