Food Poisoning
By Alice Henry
@IreneVincent (15960)
United States
July 12, 2016 11:40am CST
Did you know that more than SIX MILLION Americans get food poisoning every year??
About 300,000 of these, require hospitalization and about 5000 actually die.
Lately, it seems that more and more food processing plants have had to be shut down, mostly for listeria or e.coli. My favorite ice cream plant was shut down. Boo Hoo! It still hasn’t reopened.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is in charge of inspecting these food plants and they DO inspect about 6000 every year, where they collect, and test more than 85,000 samples. Almost every week, we hear of another food product being recalled.
The USDA officials argue that only plants that have a poor safety record should be inspected.
What do you think? Have you ever had food poisoning or do you know of someone who has?
Picture by Pixabay
3 people like this
4 responses
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
12 Jul 16
It has been happening way too often, at least in the past year according to the news. Restaurants and frozen foods - I don't know what's going on - but yes, people are getting sick! It ALL should be inspected - ongoing - poor safety record or not - the time to find out issues is not after the fact. We are talking about public health!
I know I've had my share of food poisoning. I think of my coach who ate out with her husband all the time for practically all meals and she always got food poisoning (besides food handling and cooking preparations, who knows how long food sits there thereafter?!)
2 people like this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
12 Jul 16
@IreneVincent 
Honestly we haven't avoided salad bars completely - but I know we should. We have one friend who will not even go to those juice places . . . she asked the managers where their frozen fruits came from and as they did not know the source (as she looks through those recall lists), she will not buy from them.
Honestly we haven't avoided salad bars completely - but I know we should. We have one friend who will not even go to those juice places . . . she asked the managers where their frozen fruits came from and as they did not know the source (as she looks through those recall lists), she will not buy from them.1 person likes this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
13 Jul 16
@IreneVincent I wonder about that too. I've heard of "spitting" in the food too when they don't like the customer 
. Sometimes I feel like perhaps food handling employees only care about getting their paychecks and don't put great care into the job they are supposed to be doing. Well, I question work ethics in all fields these days.
. Sometimes I feel like perhaps food handling employees only care about getting their paychecks and don't put great care into the job they are supposed to be doing. Well, I question work ethics in all fields these days.@IreneVincent (15960)
• United States
12 Jul 16
@much2say Every time we eat out, I have to wonder how the food in the kitchen has been handled. I have heard of all sorts of situations, from putting things back on a plate after it fell to the floor, to servers not washing their hands properly, and many other things that are really scary.
1 person likes this
@IreneVincent (15960)
• United States
12 Jul 16
I don't think I have had food poison, but I have had some bad reactions to certain foods after eating out.
1 person likes this
@HazySue (39265)
• Gouverneur, New York
12 Jul 16
@IreneVincent it might have been a slight case of food poisoning.
@ricki_911 (21625)
• Toronto, Ontario
12 Jul 16
Food poisoning occurs more than we think. I was talking to a friend who had it but didn't realize it.
1 person likes this
@IreneVincent (15960)
• United States
12 Jul 16
It certainly does. If you just THINK about the possibilities in these food plants for bacteria growth and human error, it's mind boggling. I can only imagine all the intricate cleaning processes that have to take place in order to sanitize the mechanical aspects of preparing and packaging the food, especially MEATS.
