undercooked in the fast food restaurant,
resulting in this outbreak. Over 225,
ground beef patties were recalled from the
chains’ restaurants. This was the largest E. coli
0157:H7 outbreak in U.S. history and was
estimated to cost between $229 million and
$610 million. The company took bold, inno-
vative steps to develop a state-of-the-art food
safety program and improve its reputation
and brand image. Today, this company enjoys
the reputation of being one of the most strin-
gent food safety programs in the foodservice
industry.
During the past, a popular brand of
imported bottled water was contaminated
with benzene. The natural gas present in the
spring water source contained a number of
impurities. The carbon filters that were used
to remove these impurities became clogged.
A faulty warning light on the process con-
trol panel went undetected by employees for
6 months, allowing the filters to become
clogged. When the benzene-contaminated
water was discovered, the company recalled
160 million bottles of water from 120 coun-
tries. This incident was estimated to cost the
bottler about $263 million.
An outbreak ofListeria monocytogenesin
frankfurters resulted in 101 cases of illness
and 21 deaths in 22 states. Although the
frankfurters were processed, they were con-
taminated after processing and before pack-
aging. It was reported that major renovations
were being made in the processing plant
when the contamination occurred. A nation-
wide recall of frankfurters made in this plant
was undertaken to prevent additional cases
of illness.
Today, 2% to 3% of the U.S. adult popula-
tion, or about 11 million Americans, have food
allergies and approximately 150 to 200 people
die each year from food-allergic reactions
(Bodendorfer et al., 2004). The prevalence of
food allergies has increased in the last decade
and this trend will continue in the years ahead.
Since trace amounts of the offending food
trigger reactions, people with food allergies
depend on accurate labels on processed foods,
as well as knowledgeable chefs, wait staff, and
food workers in foodservice operations and
retail food stores.
In the early 1990s a European beer maker
inadvertently used defective glass to make
export beer bottles. When transported or
opened, glass splinters could fall into the
beer and cause injury. No one was injured as
a result of the glass splinters, but the beer
manufacturer recalled, destroyed, and
replaced 15.4 million bottles. At the time, the
company estimated the loss to be between
$10 million and $50 million.
Major food safety incidents have common
characteristics and include biological, chemi-
cal, or physical hazards. They occur through-
out the food system and have occurred
globally and often result from one or a com-
bination of factors including:
●contaminated raw materials
●errors in transportation, processing,
preparation, handling, or storage
●packaging problems
●food tampering/malicious contami-
nation
●mishandling
●changes in formulation or processing
●inadequate maintenance of equipment
or facilities
●addition of incorrect ingredient(s)These are examples of the importance of
sanitation during food processing and prepa-
ration, as well as proper cleaning and sani-
tizing of food manufacturing and food
service equipment and facilities. The conse-
quences of improper sanitation are severe
and include loss of sales, reduced profits,
damaged product acceptability, loss of trust
and consumer confidence, adverse publicity,
erosion of brand image, loss of market share
and, sometimes, legal action. Sanitary prac-