How to Recognize Food Poisoning Illness | Prevent Food Poisoning Hazards

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How to Identify and Avoid Foods From Unlicensed, Unpermitted or Unapproved Sources or Illegal Facilities

Minimize Your Chances of Contracting a Potentially Deadly Food Poisoning or Food Borne Illness

 

All foods, beverages and other consumables (drugs, vitamins etc.) sold at the wholesale or retail level throughout most western and developed countries must, by law, be produced, processed, stored and sold from government approved, licensed and inspected facilities. This is especially true of the United States, Canada, and Europe, as well as many Asian countries.

The reason for this is simply due to the fact that without some minimum government oversight on health, safety and sanitation standards, we know, from 100 years of history on food production, that businesses and individuals cut corners, minimize costs and time to maximize production and profits. Usually concern for safety and sanitation will not always be the businesses’ top priority or concern. In the past, we have seen how this has lead to horrific production, processing and storage conditions for food products. Contaminated, adulterated, and mishandled food and beverages are the result of such conditions and are the key element or source for contracting food poisoning or food borne illness as well as causing injuries and death.

Even today in the U.S. and other developed countries, with the many laws and high standards in place, individuals, mainly, (legitimate food businesses usually can’t stay unnoticed for very long) attempt to produce, process, store and sell food products without a local, state or federal government permit, license or inspection. These unapproved or unlicensed facilities or sources can be someone’s home, garage or illegal production facility or warehouse. Basically any place or facility where there is no government oversight or regular inspection.

As I mentioned, these food products are especially high risk and you as a consumer need to avoid and report these foods whenever they are observed. The question then is how do you identify these foods and facilities?

 

The Brick & Mortar Facility

Let’s start with the facility or the building or location where you are purchasing the food or beverages. Be wary of any facility that has any of the following conditions or characteristics:

  • No obvious sign on the building (or cart or catering truck, if mobile) of a business name.

  • No posted permits on a wall near the entrance.

  • The building is a residence, not a commercial facility. Food products to be sold at retail or wholesale can not be produced, processed, stored in or sold from a private home. The one rare exception is nonperishable, prepackaged food may be given away, sold, or handled from a private home but this is subject to local restrictions.

  • The facility is missing some required, officially posted placard or notification sign, such as a grade, or score card or some version of an inspection report (for those cities and counties that require some form of posted notification of safety level).

  • The facility is an out-of-the-way location or in a rural area that is not on a main highway and not attempting to advertise itself. In other words only word of mouth knowledge of its existence.

  • Ethnic or recent immigrant owned facilities are more likely to purchase or obtain food and beverages from unapproved, unlicensed sources. They may just be ignorant of the legal requirements or just can’t pass up the lower expense for these products. In California one of the most, if not the most common food product being produced illegally (mainly in garages and homes) are soft cheeses. The cheeses are commonly sold in Hispanic markets and neighborhoods and are usually easy to spot by the lack of a proper label, which is discussed next.

The Food Product Itself - Labeling Requirements

One key means a consumer can use to identify suspicious foods coming from unapproved sources is a proper label with all the legally required information.

The label is the first thing a government inspector looks for on products to determine if the producer or distributor is legal and permitted. There is information required on a label that assists the inspector in making this determination, which is also there for you, the consumer to use as well.

Most health and safety codes and laws require at least 5 basic pieces of information on most labels. There are exceptions such as for alcohol and drug labels, unpackaged whole produce and other bulk food products, and certain bakery products sold directly to the consumer from the manufacturer or bakery distributor.

These 5 label requirements include:

1.  The common name of the food, or absent a common name, an adequately descriptive identity statement.

2.  If made from two or more ingredients, a list of ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight, including a declaration of artificial color or flavor and chemical preservatives, if contained in the food.

3.  An accurate declaration of the quantity of contents (i.e. weight or volume).

4.  The name and place of business of the manufacturer, packer, or distributor.

5.  Some type of nutrition labeling including total calories, calories from fat, grams and percentages of fat, carbohydrates etc.

If any of these or all are missing on a food or beverage product it’s best to either ask questions of the retailer or seller as to the source of the product or just don’t purchase it. Also, at least in the U.S., the label is required to be in English. If not then it was most likely imported or brought into the country illegally and you should definitely not purchase it.

For more specific identifying factors on the food itself, please click on and read towards the bottom of my article titled “The Meaning Behind Food Product Dates”

 

Off the Internet

Purchasing foods and beverages from sellers, distributors or manufacturers off the internet is not new in the sense of having foods delivered to your home or business from a carrier or through the mail. Mail order of almost any product has been around for decades if not longer. The internet just made it easy in terms of choices than ever before (as with everything you buy or see on the internet).

Also, as with anything you buy on the internet, especially food and beverages, you, as a consumer, need to further investigate the business to determine if it is legitimate (i.e. have a license of permit and are regularly inspected by the local jurisdiction). One simple way is to determine where (what city, county, state) they are storing or producing their product and look up that areas local or state environmental health food inspection program and contact them to request if this business is licensed or permitted to operate. If it is not licensed then I think you have your answer as to whether you should purchase this product or not. Also the local environmental health agency will be interested in this information and will want to investigate this business themselves.

Another simple way is to type their business name into a Google search with the words “reviews” or “complaints”, looking for any negative or positive postings people may have made related to their experiences with this business.

Overall, from my own experience of inspecting and closing down many illegal food facilities (everything from illegal warehouses to single family homes turned into a restaurant or a cheese processing factory with every room, including the bathtub, filled with large tubs of homemade cheese), the conditions of these facilities ranged from far from acceptable to very dangerous. One common factor was that none I can ever recall was even close to meeting the minimum sanitation and safety standard required by law and generally acceptable practices.

 

REFERENCES:

California Retail Food Code effective July 1, 2007 Sections 114039.1, 114089(a) , and 114089.1

   

About the Author

Michael Doom worked as a Registered Environmental Health Specialist (REHS) for Los Angeles County for more than 21 years. For most of these years he worked as a field inspector and Supervising Senior REHS in the retail food inspection programs. His experience within Los Angeles County has taken him to some of the smallest “mom and pop” restaurants and markets in the poorest areas of south Los Angeles, as well as to the largest facilities and affluent areas on the west side. He has literally conducted thousands of inspections of numerous types of restaurants, food markets, warehouses, events, and more; educated hundreds, if not more than a thousand, food facility owners, managers and employees on food sanitation and food safety, and how to prevent food poisoning hazards; has supervised more than 50 field inspectors that were responsible for an inventory of food facilities larger than many U.S. states.

Mr. Doom has a B.S. in Biology from Loyola Marymount University, an REHS with the state of California, holds a Project Management Professional (PMP®) credential from the Project Management Institute, and a Masters Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University.  Mr. Doom continuously works to expand his knowledge and experience in the subject of food safety, sanitation and food poisoning prevention.

He can be reached at Mike@foodpoisoningprevention.com