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<< back to the 2003 archive listing << Food Protection Trends Thoughts from the President There is no one person nor just one event that is entirely responsible for
compromising the safety of the food we eat Life sometimes presents ridiculous, but very apt, analogies. I realize I will now be admitting some lapses in my housekeeping qualifications, but I suspect I am not alone in the crowd (addressing both male and female readers!). The saga starts with the house I recently moved into. Given a clean bill of health by the house inspector, this 27-year old home has some charm not found in newer townhouses and condos. Nevertheless, as time goes by, one finds the minor faults that were not initially apparent. Another hectic month had gone by. Aren’t they all? I was facing a busy week. To minimize the effort, I filled the kitchen sink with soap and water, and dropped dishes in to soak. Ok, ok, they soaked for a week or so. Went off to Ottawa for a meeting over a couple of days. Arriving home late Friday evening, I noticed little puddles on the kitchen floor. Now what? The previous owners had installed a newer type of flooring material, a cushioned wood veneer in 8-inch wide and 3-foot long sections. To make a long story short, the sink I had filled with water (and dishes) apparently has a slow leak. Not necessarily a big problem in itself, but doesn’t help if the sink is kept filled with water for a long period of time. However, in the cabinet under the sink, where the water was dripping, I had stored something, not important, but it was in a card-board sleeve. The cardboard sleeve soaked up the drips, and, because it was angled over a joint in the bottom of the cabinet, the water dripped into that seam. From there the water seeped into the sub-floor, which then flowed under the flooring, leaving it all very squishy and producing puddles from between the seams when one walked on them… As this was a very slow leak, gradual changes were indeed occurring, but nothing happened all at once, nor was apparent (sink didn’t drain, no flooding). Just drip-drip, seep-seep. If I had been astute, maybe I would have investigated a couple of days earlier, to determine why the edges of the flooring seemed to be lifting. Did notice, but simply thought it was a bad job of installation. Something I would deal with later. Where is the analogy? It was close to midnight, I had just arrived home, and now was weighting down the kitchen flooring, sopping up whatever water came up, thinking what to do next…? So, I mused, if I hadn’t left the sink full of water sitting for so long, nothing would have happened (although the slow leak would still be there). And if the cardboard sleeve wasn’t there to soak up the drips, maybe I would have seen the water under the sink. If the house construction didn’t leave that seam open under the sink, maybe the water would still be there, instead of under my kitchen floorboards. Now, whom should I be angry with? Whom should I sue? Me? When it struck me. Dr. Morrie Potter, formerly of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now with the US FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition (CFSAN), noted in his 1994 IAFP Annual Meeting Ivan Parkin lecture that foodborne outbreaks are rarely attributed to just one mistake. Typically, outbreaks can be traced to combination of factors, i.e., a contamination event, compounded by one or more subsequent mishandling and/or temperature abuse events. The point being that, in many cases, there is neither one person nor just one event that is entirely responsible for compromising the safety of the food we eat. Everyone in the “production-to-consumption” food chain has a role in food safety, and we all have to pay attention. Ivan Parkin Award recipients like Morrie Potter always provide insightful and intriguing lectures for the Sunday evening opening session. We are delighted that this year’s award will go to Dr. Donald Zink, Senior Food Scientist at FDA/CFSAN, who will kick-start what promises to be a great Annual Meeting in New Orleans. I look forward to seeing you all there, at which time I will let you know how I corrected my dripping sink and wet floor. However, just some words of advice: wash your dishes before you leave home.
Or put them in the bathtub… |