Tag Archives: prevention

Grilling & Food Contamination

Posted by Marketing Dept.  –  Education, Food Safety, General
July 2, 2021

Summer is here! What a perfect opportunity to get outside and enjoy the warm summer air we’ve all been craving! For some individuals, spending time outdoors could involve hiking, boating, or reading in the shade, but one thing we can all agree on, summer is the perfect time to enjoy some of our favorite foods on the grill. Whether with family, friends, or even coworkers, cooking food on the grill appears to be a popular summer activity. With summer holidays approaching, like the Fourth of July, it is important to keep your celebrations healthy and safe by following food safety tips to prevent contamination while grilling.

According to the FDA and the USDA Food Safety organizations, there are grilling food safety tips to be followed for all food types:

  • Be Clean: First, make sure to wash your hands thoroughly, especially after touching any form of raw meat. Before consumption, make sure to rinse off fruits and vegetables as there may be bacteria on the surfaces. Never rinse off raw meat as this can increase your risk of cross-contamination.
  • Separate: Keep raw meats away from other foods such as salads, dips, or fruit. Be conscientious of not using the same utensils for putting raw meat on the grill, and for taking cooked meat off the grill. Using the same utensils that touched raw meat could be covered in harmful bacteria, which can contaminate the cooked meat.
  • Temperature: Use a food thermometer to check if food is fully cooked. Sometimes grilling can give you a false impression where food looks fully cooked on the outside, but is under cooked on the inside. The recommended internal temperature for beef, pork, lamb, and veal is 145°F, ground meat is 160°F, whole poultry is 165°F, and fish is 145°F.
  • Fruits and Vegetables: Lastly, make sure to be aware of how long fruits and vegetables should be cooking on the grill. Thicker cut fruits and vegetables will have to cook longer than thinner pieces. Although, fruits and vegetables do not have to reach a minimum internal temperature like meat, it is still important to cook them thoroughly.

Although grilling out in the summer can be a fun thing to do, it is important to take action and be careful in preventing the harmful spread of bacteria to our food. To learn more about additional tips and guidelines to follow when cooking various foods this summer, check out the FDA and USDA Food Safety organization websites to learn more.

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NEW Color-Coded Catalog Available Now!

Posted by Marketing Dept.  –  Education, Food Safety, General, Laboratory & QA/QC, Packaging, Packaging & Ingredients, Processing & Flow Control, Production & Material Handling, Safety & Personnel, Sanitation & Janitorial
March 31, 2021

Springtime brings many new colors, from the flowers popping up in gardens to the spring and summer produce offerings at the grocery store. During this colorful time of year, it might be the perfect opportunity to take a look at color-coding in your facility, whether that means starting a new color-coded program or expanding an existing program.

Nelson-Jameson has expanded our color-coded program once again with the release of our 2021 Color-Coded Catalog. This year’s catalog has grown to 68 pages of products that are designed to help prevent allergen migration and cross-contamination. A complete color-coded program helps to lay the foundation for a solid food safety program, and can help minimize the risk of cross-contamination.

Why choose a color-coded system? A complete color-coded system helps promote organization and efficient workflow. Designating critical control areas and zones helps your sanitation program by ensuring that the tools stay in the areas in which they are meant to be used, doing jobs they are meant to do.

In addition to having the most extensive color-coded program in the industry, we also have the most color options to help meet all your color-coded needs. Our expanded catalog also includes new items like Carlisle Total Color Products, ColorCore Cleaning Tools, Vacuum Accessories, Cutlery, and more.

From the lab to the processing line, Nelson-Jameson has the color-coded products you need to produce safe, quality food. Download or request a copy of our new color-coded catalog today!

 

 

 

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Sugar, Spice, and Everything Mice

Posted by Makenzie Wozniak  –  Education, Food Safety, General, Sanitation & Janitorial
October 9, 2020

Ahhh yes, my favorite time of year, fall! The leaves are changing, the temperature is starting to cool down, and pests are trying to wither their way indoors. As the colder months start to approach, it’s important to realize that fall pest control is a must! Although pest control is essential for all seasons of the year, it is very important to prep your food processing facility for the winter.

The key to controlling pests is through prevention, defense, and management measures. It’s important to know the calling signs of each of the categories of pests, so you can determine what products you will need for each. For insects, birds, and rodents, there are many similar calling signs, these include; droppings, visual sightings, eggs/hatchlings, noise, etc. When there is suspicion of pests present in your facility, it is important to do a thorough inspection of both the interior and exterior of the facility to determine the issue.

Nelson-Jameson offers a variety of products to suit your pest control needs. For rodents, consider 
Stick-Em® Rodent Traps, NJ# 202-6010. These traps are effective and don’t pose the danger to employees of spring traps or uncertainty of box traps. Looking to combat insects? Try a Insect-O-Cutor® Guardian Scatterproof Unit, NJ# 343-6392. Scatterproof units are ideal for use in proximity to open food processing areas as they are USDA and FDA approved.  Aside from this unit, Nelson-Jameson offers other popular items to repel insects, such as light traps. Here are some helpful tips to ensure you are maximizing the most use out of your light trap(s):

  • Use a trap that is best determined for the area it will reside in.
  • Change out your bulbs according to manufacturer recommendations.
  • Shatter protection must be in place where food or packaging may become contaminated from broken glass.
  • Glueboard traps must be changed/replaced once the glue loses its tackiness.

No matter what time of year it is, pest control is something that plants need to be looking at regularly, as different pests are more active in different seasons. In the fall season though, it is primarily important because pests are looking for a place to stay warm during the winter. At Nelson-Jameson, we believe that staying ahead of the game is important to avoid costly shutdowns within food processing environments. Click here for more information regarding how to effectively eliminate pests from your work environment and to avoid these costly shutdowns.

Sources:

Why Fall Pest Control Is So Important. (2014, September 9). American Pest. https://www.americanpest.net/blog/post/why-fall-pest-control-is-so-important#:%7E:text=In%20fall%2C%20bugs%20and%20rodents,pest%20control%20is%20so%20important.&text=They%20can%20stop%20many%20bugs%20before%20they%20even%20get%20to%20your%20home

 

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September is Food Safety Education Month!

Posted by Makenzie Wozniak  –  Education, Food Safety, General, Safety & Personnel
September 28, 2020

September is Food Safety Education Month! According to the FDA, the importance of food safety is learning and educating others on taking an active role in preventing foodborne illnesses. Every year an estimated 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die from eating contaminated food. Below are some tips, provided by the CDC, that you can take advantage of at home to keep you and your family safe from these illnesses.

• Clean: Wash your hands, utensils, and surfaces. This step is important to do before, during, and after cooking to help prevent cross-contamination of harmful bacteria.

• Separate: Make sure to separate your raw meats from your produce to prevent cross-contamination as well. Raw meats normally carry many different pathogens such as salmonella, E.coli, listeria monocytogenes, etc. Like you and I, many animals naturally carry bacteria in their bodies when alive, so after an animal is slaughtered, the bacteria within their intestines can easily be converted onto the meat itself.

• Cook: Use a food thermometer to ensure the food you are preparing is being cooked to the correct temperature, this is to ensure that all germs are being killed before consumption.

• Chill: Bacteria can multiply quickly within perishable foods if they are being stored in room temperature, so it is important to refrigerate perishable foods within two hours after use.

Another tidbit that I wanted to touch on that I think is relevant for many families, is how to keep your bagged lunches safe from these illnesses as well. I know from personal experience, during my morning commute to work, it can be hard to keep my bagged lunch, cold. A helpful tip to get around this dilemma is to include at least two cold sources to keep the food chilled while it is not being refrigerated. Whether it’s an ice pack, or a frozen water bottle, place one source on top of the food, and one on the bottom to ensure your food is the same temperature throughout. Once at work, place your food in the refrigerator/freezer. If food is in an insulated lunchbox, unzip the top and leave the lid open. This will chill your food faster versus the lunchbox being closed.

At Nelson-Jameson, we take food safety very seriously, and value our role in the food supply chain—providing food processing facilities with the products and services they need to produce safe, quality food. For more information on Nelson-Jameson’s role in the food supply chain, click here.

 

Sources:

Fong, Fiona. “Bacteria in Raw Meat vs. Cooked Meat.” Bacteria in Raw Meat vs Cooked Meat, 1 Sept. 2017,
www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/multimedia_pub_fsf_130_02.html.

“Food Safety Education Month.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25 Aug. 2020, www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/education-month.html.

Keeping “Bag” Lunches Safe, United States Department of Agriculture, 16 Aug. 2016, www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/keeping-bag-lunches-safe/ct_index/!ut/p/a1/jVHRTsIwFP2aPXYtDAn4tiwxgDIkRCl7Id121zaMdmk7UL_eMnxQA0rvS3vuOTm95-IMU5wpdpCcOakVq0_vbLglSzLsjRMyW4x7D2Savi4Xj0lCRqs7T9j8QUijG_VXTkz-089uMOibeTLnOGuYE0iqSmPKwSGm7BGMxbTSukSWVeDeUcUKh6w
AcL5xwlDXFUyVtVQc0x1A4y8oZxzVrSoE2E6LaeG2UpXwhtc4-_kr0vM1TaPVYDJLI7IY_CZciO1MuJ6LH5zXOu92tIlVHo38hAYqMGDC1nhYONfY-4AE5CiLozY7G1bKhq0tWcj1ISAGrG5NATYgfV9IfW0dfQ8EyrbocLTXyolLbkJbh-lFE9zsX-jHUzwh8nm_Htn4E5BY1es!/.

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Often Off The Radar: Hepatitis A and Food Safety

Posted by Mathew J. Bartkowiak, Ph.D.  –  Food Safety, General
April 9, 2013

When it comes to food illness, such names as Listeria, E.coli, etc. might be familiar. A name that may be more of a surprise to some is “Hepatitis.” More specifically, Hepatitis A appeared in some disconcerting recent headlines involving a New York City tapas restaurant. Hepatitis A is a virus that causes liver inflammation. According to the Mayo Clinic, “You’re most likely to contract hepatitis A from contaminated food or water or from close contact with someone who’s already infected.” The virus can be passed on via small traces of fecal material being orally ingested.

This appears to have been the cause for concern in NYC. An employee, having returned from a trip to Mexico, may have exposed several hundred people to the virus, via handling desserts at the restaurant. Customers that ate at the restaurant within this certain time period are being encouraged to get vaccinated for safe measure.

handwashingEven if Hepatitis A might not be a commonly focused-upon food-safety related virus in the media and amongst consumers,  it does share a very common method of prevention with many other food illnesses: hand-washing. This simple measure can help prevent the spread of Hepatitis A in the food industry and elsewhere.

Even if mild cases of the virus generally do not create any “permanent liver damage,” you can be sure seeing the word “Hepatitis” connected to the food supply can be quite shocking to the average American consumer. Informing employees and making sure your entire operation is informed and trained in proper hand-washing techniques can help prevent this virus and a whole host of others.

To check out some helpful resources to assist in implementing an effective hygiene program, check out this free FDA resource.

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