Joesene Blake

Professor Bess
English 102
30, November 2016
Reflection #4
The way to protect your food
"We are what we eat." Food is indeed, the most important thing to the human body. It
sustained life, promote growth, and provide the body with the energy that it needs. Therefore, it
is our responsibility to ensure that we are consuming food that is healthy, fresh, and not
contaminated. Food can be contaminated at any point in its journey from production to when it is
prepared in kitchens. Food is more prone to be contaminated where it's grown or produced. For
example, Fish or seafood may be contaminated by agriculture runoff, sewage, and other toxins in
the water where they live. If one consumed contaminated food this can result in food illness.
Foodborne illness is any illness that is related to the consumption of food or of contaminated or
toxins in food. If people are more aware of how to properly take care of their food, it will
decrease the rate of foodborne illness and help them to make better food choices for themselves
and the public.
People can properly take care of the food they eat by washing their hands after using the
bathroom because the poor handling of high-risk foods can transfer germs. High-risk foods are
those which generally need refrigeration and have a high moisture content. Like: chicken, duck
and other poultry, fish and shellfish, raw meat products, dairy products (milk, cheese, cream),
unpasteurized cow or goats milk, eggs and egg products and gravies. Try not to lick food while

preparing it. Human saliva carries staphylococcus bacteria and licking the fingers could result in
these bacteria being passed to the food. Also one need to use clean utensils to eat from or to help
prepared food. Most of the times it is better and safer for people to cook at home. Cooking at
home gives one enough time to ensured that their food is prepared properly and safely. Food are
contaminated at where it's produced or prepared, and according to the article "How safe is your
ground beef" Andrea Rocks stated that according to a test result from a consumer report, "ground
beef can make one seriously sick. " particularly when its cooked at rare or medium-rare
temperatures under 160 F. Up to 28 percent of Americans eat ground beef thats raw or
undercooked, says Hannah Gould, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC). Also, there was a outbroke of foodborne poisoning, and half cooked
ground beef was the major cause for the outbroke. The outbroke Killed five people, hospitalized
316 and sickened 1,144. In addition, I had read another article titled "Foodborne germs and
Illness." It outlined the different germs and illnesses that can lead to food poising. Germs like
botulism, Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, Cyclosophoran, E. coli, Listeria etc. It also
gives addition estimate of the amount of Americans that are influenced by food poisoning and
illnesses. CDC estimates that each year roughly 48 million people gets sick from a foodborne
illness, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die. The 2011 estimates provide the most accurate
picture of which foodborne bacteria, viruses, microbes ("pathogens") are causing the most
illnesses in the United States. According to the 2011 estimates, the most common foodborne
illnesses are caused by norovirus and by the bacteria Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and
Campylobacter. This is surprising facts that people like myself didn't know, and need to be more
careful of what they consumed because food poisoning kills.

Overall, It is important for us to take good care of the food that we consumed. It was
surprising at the number of people that died over the years from food poising. Another surprising
fact, was the fact that beef and other meat can get one sick if not prepared properly, and also
most times resulted to death. From now on, I'm going to ensure that I eat more often at home,
and helped to prepared, and chooses food that are healthier, and fresh.

Word cited: 8th edition

CDC 24/7, "Foodborne Germs and Illness," 24, September 2015, "Centers for Diseases Control
and Prevention." Saving life's and protecting people, http://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodbornegerms.html
Rock, Andrea. " How safe is your ground beef?" 21, December 2015, "Consumer Reports,"
http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/food/how-safe-is-your-ground-beef