To aid in this understanding, this publication provides some basic information about bacteria and their relationship to foodborne disease. Then it addresses preliminary considerations for a community event with simple accepted sanitation practices pertaining to eliminating agents of illness, protecting against contamination, making food an inhospitable medium, and limiting bacteria growth. The purpose of these practices is to prevent disease. A companion publication, HE-196, covers the important steps to assure adequate manual utensil and equipment sanitizing practices. Bacteria Bacteria are all around us and are invisible to the eye.
Bacteria can cause food poisoning, foul and sour odors, and cause food to spoil quickly.
Foodborne infection and poisoning result when a large number of disease producing bacteria are ingested. Food poisoning and infection symptoms are nausea, cramps, and vomiting. To grow or multiply, foodborne disease bacteria need food, moisture, warmth, and a neutral or slightly acid environment. After an adaptive growth period of about an hour, the bacteria in the contaminated food under the right growth conditions will double every 15 to 30 minutes. The bacteria that produce toxins do so during multiplication.