------------------------------------------------- University of Phoenix Material

Food Safety Worksheet

Read each of the following scenarios.

Scenario 1:

Jeremiah went grocery shopping on a hot summer day. He bought food for an upcoming family BBQ; ground beef for hamburgers, a couple of steaks, and the ingredients for making potato salad.

When he left the store, he put his groceries in the trunk and stopped by the sports outlet store to pick up a Frisbee and croquet set. It took about 10 minutes at the sports store, and then Jeremiah headed home to prepare the food. He was concerned that it had been too hot in the car, but everything was still cold when he got home.

Jeremiah took the groceries home and put everything in the refrigerator. The meat fit well on the top shelf, right above the potato salad ingredients.

Later on, he got the groceries out to prep everything for the BBQ. He cooked the potatoes and used a sharp knife to trim some excess fat off of the raw steaks. Then he cut up the rest of the vegetables for the potato salad with the sharp knife on a cutting board.

Jeremiah formed the hamburger patties, seasoned the steaks, and finished making the potato salad. With only about 45 minutes to go before leaving for the BBQ, Jeremiah left everything sitting out on the counter while he showered and got ready.

When he arrived at the BBQ, he set the potato salad on the picnic table and went to grill the steaks and burgers. He cooked both to about medium doneness, meaning both were pink in the middle.

Jeremiah enjoyed one of the steaks he prepared and gave one to his cousin. The other family members enjoyed the burgers and potato salad; in fact, Jeremiah didn’t have a chance to try the salad. A couple of days after the BBQ, Jeremiah learned that everyone at the BBQ, with exception of himself and his cousin, experienced a bout of flu-like symptoms the following day.

Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.

1. Based on Scenario 1, what are the possible sources of food-borne illness?
Possible sources of the food-borne illness could have came from the potato salad or the hmburgers. Cross contamination more than likely occurred because Jeremiah used the same knife on to cut the potatoes as he used to cut up the raw meat.
Leaving the meat out for a large amount of time can increase the risk of bacteria growing and living on the meat posing a huge risk for illness. If he would have known the proper steps to handle both food preps he could avoid making others sick.

2. Although Jeremiah did not get sick, there were several areas throughout Jeremiah’s day that could have led him to a serious case of food-borne illness. Point out these areas and briefly explain why they are of concern and what Jeremiah could have done differently.
Leaving the food in the car while he went shopping, storage placement of the food in the refrigerator, and leaving the food out while he was showering are all areas of concern with Jeremiah’s food prep.
Leaving the food in the car means that he had no idea how warm the meat got while he was shopping. Foods require certain tempertures so that the “cooking” process doesn’t start before it is time. Putting meat on top of other food could lead to the meat draining into the other food and posing risks for cross contamination. Leaving the food on the counter instead of the refrig while he was showing can harbor growth of bacteria on the food before it is cooked and cause a risk for people to get sick when the eat the food. Most contamination of food occurs during storage or before cooking because it is not handled properly.

3. Why is it safe for steak to be pink in the middle, but potentially dangerous for a hamburger not to be cooked all the way through?
With steak the bacteria is held where the meat is cut. With steak it is cut from the top and the bottom, not from the inside. With hamburger the meat is all grided together. That means that the blades that cut hamburger touches all areas of the meat and needs to be cooked at a certain temperature to make sure that bacteria doesn’t grow after the meat is consumed.

Scenario 2:

After enjoying a delicious dinner of lasagna, Martha cleaned up the kitchen and left the covered tray of leftover lasagna on the counter to cool. Since the lasagna was so dense and thick, it took about 4 hours for it to feel cool enough to go into the fridge for the night. The next day, Martha served leftover lasagna for lunch. She heated the lasagna thoroughly and it was finished.

Within about 2–3 hours, everyone who ate the lasagna developed stomach cramps, fever, and nausea; most eventually started vomiting. The illness was pretty awful, but thankfully relatively short-lived.

Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.

1. How could this illness have been prevented?
This illness could have been prevented if Martha would have covered the dish and placed it in the refridgertor, instead of leaving it on the counter for several hours to cool. Because the dish has lots of dairy products that make up the dish it should have been kept at a temp that is consistant with that of storing dairy products. With the products being left out so long it has the possibly of spoiling and collecting unwanted bacteria.

2. Based on the incubation period and symptoms of the illness, what is the most likely microorganism responsible for this illness?
Based on the short term incubation period and symptoms of the illness the microorganism responsible for this illness more than likely was Staphylococcus Aureus. Staphylococcus Aureus is a bacteria that produces toxin in foods. The onset of the intoxication is rapid within one to six hours and lasts about 24 hours.

3. Describe the temperature danger zone.
Bacteria won't multiply in the colder temperatures of a refrigerator or freezer, or at temperatures hotter than 141°F. Where they thrive is between 41°F and 140°F, a region known as the "Food Temperature Danger Zone." The temperture danger zone is the area in which the food needs to be kept in range of to prevent food-borne illesses.

4. How could Martha have sped up the cooling process of the lasagna?
Martha could have sped up the cooling process of the lasagna by placing the leftovers in a different container. Changing containers could help because the new container has not been involved in the cooking process so it is not at a higher temperature than normal. Doing this means that Martha could have placed the leftover lasagna in the refrigdetor quicker.

5. If the leftover lasagna was thoroughly reheated, (which it was), how did it still lead to food-borne illness?
Even though the lasagna was reheated thoroughly the food-borne illness occurred before the food was placed inside for storage.

Scenario 3:

Sally was making marinated shish-kabobs to grill for dinner. She made a beautiful marinade and then cut up the raw chicken on a cutting board. She put the chunks of chicken in the marinade and let it sit on the counter for about 3 hours until it was time to cook.

While the chicken was marinating, Sally prepared the vegetables. She cut them using the same cutting board and knife; she rinsed both off with warm water between cutting the chicken and the vegetables.

Once the chicken had marinated, Sally put the chicken and vegetables on skewers to be grilled. She also started rice in the rice cooker to go with the shish-kabobs.

As the shish-kabobs were grilling, Sally put the marinade in a serving dish for extra sauce to put over the rice.

Several hours later, Sally and her family members all developed nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, headache, and abdominal pain.

Write 50- to 150-word responses to each of the following questions. Be clear and concise, use complete sentences, and explain your answers using specific examples.

1. What could be the cause of Sally and her family members’ illness?
The cause of Sally and her family member’s illness more than likely was E.Coli caused from leaving the chicken out for too long while it was marinading. I also could have been caused from cross contamination because the proper steps to cleaning the cutting board were not taken. Sall should have made sure that she properly washed both the cutting board and the knife to ensure that the would not make direct contact with other foods that she was cutting. 2. How could this illness have been prevented?
This illness could have been prevented but just keeping the chicken at the recommended storing temperature while it was marinating. By leaving it on the counter to marinate fo an extended period of time with out being at the right temperature it leaves the chicken valunerable to grow bacteria.