Hospitality Management--Food Safety Management Essay

Hospitality Management--Food Safety Management - Essay Example With this comes a great responsibility to ensure the safety and integrity of the food supply. Little kills a tourist destination or catering business more than bad publicity. This can occur in the media, or via word of mouth. One of the primary concerns in the industry has long been outbreaks of food poisoning (Adams and Morrell 38). Catering businesses must depend not only on their own quality control standards, but also on the safe supply of fresh food to their business as well. It is critical that food born illnesses be eliminated from the food supply to the greatest extent possible. Much has been discussed in this area in recent years as the number of tourism based businesses continues to grow exponentially. This paper will examine a particular case of food born disease that directly affected the catering industry in Africa, and will enter into a discussion of relevant legislation and recommendations to avoid future outbreaks worldwide. Case Study and the Causative Agent Salad ha s long been a staple of the catering industry. Nearly every meal in world wide tourist circles, particularly meals that are catered, have some form of salad mix as a part of the set menu (Henderson 318). Produce, however, must be handled carefully as there are many food born diseases that can result if not properly handled (Chapman et. al. 1101). Because of the mass quantities of lettuce and other ingredients of salad that must be collected for any one event, it becomes even more critical to examine the health and safe of such food products. Since salad is not cooked, heat and extreme temperatures utilized in the cooking process do not assist in the elimination of contaminants (Amhadi and Hussain 172). One such case study was recently conducted in Nigeria to determine the prevalence of food born bacteria in ready made salad mixes typically used in the catering industry. General Details Scientists tested 150 different ready-to-eat salad samples from various sources in Calabar, South Nigeria. The samples were taken from such tourist and catering sites as fast food centers, wedding reception banquets, and birthday parties in the main part of the city. This occurred during the three-month period in order to ensure that the food and produce supplier remained relatively consistent (Udo et. al. 1). During the analysis of the samples, it was discovered that five main types of bacteria were present in the lettuce on an above average scale. â€Å"The probable human pathogens isolated were Staphylococcus aureus 35 (41.18%), Escherichia coli 21 (24.71%), Klebsiella aerogenes 11 (12.94%), Slamonella Enterica var Typhimuirum 3 (3.53%, and Bacsillus species 15 (17.65%)† (Udo et al 2). It was discovered that an astounding 40% of fast food centers, 52% of birthday parties, and 78% of wedding receptions had enough bacteria in their salad to cause food poisoning amongst the guests. Obviously this is an unacceptable number, but this case study is reflective of the overall danger of the food preparation industry if proper handling of food is not undertaken. The case study from Nigeria demonstrates that salads typically eaten in tourist venues and at catering events are often contaminated with pathogens that can cause grave illness in humans. This indicates a strong need to take care that food service personnel, particularly in the hospitality industry, use proper hygiene standards and that fruits and vegetables are disinfected and stored at the