Foodborne illness can be caused by a wide variety of bacteria and viruses. FDA cites five highly infectious pathogens that can easily be transmitted by food workers and cause severe illness. These five foodborne pathogens, also known as the 'Big 5,' include norovirus, hepatitis A virus, Salmonella, Shigella, and Escherichia coli (E. coli)1. As a food service professional, you are probably familiar with these names, but are you familiar with the dramatic impact these (and other) foodborne pathogens have in the United States each year?
The numbers are staggering:
- 48 million – The number of cases of foodborne illness each year in the United States2
- $51 billion – The annual economic impact of foodborne illness in the United States3
- $3,968 to $2.6 million – The cost of a single foodborne illness outbreak for a restaurant4
These figures emphasize the dramatic public health and economic impact foodborne illness has in the United States each year. It is easy to see that a single outbreak could easily put a restaurant out of business for good. Additionally, with the adoption of new technologies such as whole genomic sequencing, outbreak detection is as good as it has ever been. Given the stakes, it is imperative that operators do all that they can to prevent the chances of a foodborne illness outbreak from happening.
What are some easy ways restaurants can reduce the risk of foodborne illness?
First, make proper hand hygiene a high priority in your restaurant. Hands are a frequent source of cross-contamination within a restaurant and can potentially cause a foodborne illness outbreak. Hand hygiene starts with good handwashing technique and frequency, so ensure staff are trained properly. Gloves are intended to prevent bare-hand contact in a food preparation setting, which is very important for preventing foodborne illnesses from pathogens like norovirus. In fact, proper handwashing and gloving are two of the best ways to reduce the risk of a norovirus outbreak in a restaurant5.
Second, adopt sanitation best practices in your restaurant. Always ensure that food contact surfaces and utensils are cleaned and sanitized between tasks, and make sure to frequently disinfect touchpoints such as bathroom door handles and faucet handles, as these surfaces can contribute to the spread of foodborne pathogens such as norovirus. If possible, choose to have a standard policy that includes a daily or twice daily disinfectant schedule. During outbreak situations, consider escalating the frequency of disinfecting touchpoints to every hour, or as frequently as possible for your establishment. Ensure that employees do not come to work sick. Sick employees are major risk factors for the spread of potentially deadly foodborne illnesses such as E. coli, Salmonella, and norovirus. Make sanitation best practices a part of your daily culture and focus on executing these tasks correctly and frequently.
Finally, always strive to improve compliance within your restaurant. Whether that is improving handwashing compliance, adhering to Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for cleaning compliance, or ensuring proper use of sanitizers and disinfectants, these will all have a measurable impact on reducing risk of foodborne illness. To help drive a culture of compliance, be sure to choose high performing products with quick kill times and an ingredient safety profile that staff will enjoy using.
With products backed by decades of scientific expertise and trusted by guests for providing effective protection from germs, The PURELL SOLUTION™ for Foodservice shows you care enough to provide the very best to those who matter most—the ones who take the orders and people who place them.