ITO Thailand Hygiene Blog

Contamination of hair shafts/hairs in food

One of the major causes of contamination in food products is often caused by workers in the production process due to their diversities in having different levels of knowledge, understanding, work capability and attention. Also, it depends on the company's rules and policy on how much important is focused on the food cleanliness which will be reflected in the form of food contamination.

Food Factory Apparel: The importance behind the success

Cleanliness in food facilities and contamination are important and cannot be overlooked because they directly affect consumer safety and the credibility of the factory. In general, we often think of operators' handwashing controls, cleaning, and disinfecting surfaces, but it is often forgotten that the point of great importance is the workers’ apparel, which can be the source of contamination: physical (e.g., dust, flak, shirts, etc.), biological (pathogens and microorganisms attached to clothing or worker skin cells), chemical (contamination of cleaning agents), or even aerosol allergens. Contamination may be from raw materials to employees' clothing and enter allergen-free products. Today we will talk about the importance of apparel, cleaning of apparel inside a food factory

Functional Foods

Functional foods are foods with special health properties in addition to the usual 5 nutrient groups. They are now starting to gain popularity among consumers because they reduce the risk of developing diseases and strengthen the body's functioning system, such as the immune system, gastrointestinal tract, and they are suitable for those who have specific needs such as patients of certain diseases, elderly people who want to control weight, or athletes, etc.

Alternative foods: Carbohydrate

The trend of raw material substitutes or original recipes for foods is becoming increasingly popular for a variety of reasons, such as the problem of proteins that are allergens in foods. The trend of reducing the consumption of alternative proteins for meat, the health trend to reduce carbohydrate intake, and the development of legal requirements such as sweetness taxes or raising food standard requirements, etc., have led to the global food industry adapting, updating new ingredients and recipes to meet consumer needs. These alternatives will promote the corporate image on consumers’ health, environmental sustainability, and the modernization of corporate technology.

Alternative foods: Protein

Products that meet the new needs of consumers for the consumption of proteins.

Food Defense

Usually, food defense is often focused on food safety in terms of “accidental” contamination, such as microbial contamination in production processes from cross-contamination between raw and cooked food. Contamination of employees' hair into food, heavy metal contamination in water, accidental contamination of scrap metal into products, etc. But in reality, there is another “Risk” that is often neglected: “intentional” contamination to do harm by a person who has malicious intentions to the company's reputation or maybe anticipates social impacts, including consumer health, economics, and politics. This is what we call “food terrorism”, which requires measures to assess risks and prevent them from occurring. This is called food defense.

Cross-contamination

Eating undercooked food can cause illnesses such as diarrhea and food poisoning due to germs or toxins in food. But even if the food is cooked, there is still a risk of disease in these foods anyway. These matters relate to the cross-contamination principle in food when germs from raw food contaminate cooked food through various carriers, such as cases of ear infection from Streptococcus suis found in raw pork. Using chopsticks to pick raw and cooked pork pieces together causes the germs from raw pork to be mixed in the chopsticks used to pick cooked pork. The germs then enter the body through food intake or not even food intake as handling of raw meat contaminated with germs then touching the area of the skin that has abrasions, such as using the hands that have come into contact with the infection to rub the eyes until abrasions occur. One study reported that the chance of getting the infection through a wound on the skin was 9.5% or more [1]. Ear infection can be so serious that it can cause deafness, nerve dysfunction, or death. Therefore, cross-contamination is one of the keys to food safety

Did you know that light can kill microorganisms?

It has been a folk wisdom since ancient times that drying mattresses and clothes in the sun will remove musty smell. Part of the reason is that dehumidification with heat from light removes the musty smell and makes it too dry for microorganisms to survive. However, another reason that the microorganisms die is because of the UV light (Ultraviolet-UV) which can kill microorganisms by destroying their genetic structure, causing them to become denatured or unable to multiply.

ISO 22000

What is it? What are its benefits? Who needs to do it? What are the details?

Let’s get to know more about GHP

It is undeniable that cleanliness in food is of paramount importance. This is because food that is not clean enough can cause illnesses such as diarrhoea, contamination of parasites and germs, mouth sores from foreign bodies, etc. If it is a serious disease, it may even lead to disability, dismemberment, or death. Therefore, each country needs to have laws to control food hygiene for safety and consumer protection and compliance with international standards.