16 Occupational Health and Safe Food Handling Practices
Introduction to Food Safety and Meat Safety
Safe, nutritious, and consistently available food is essential for maintaining public health and well-being. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA): “Food safety refers to the conditions and practices that preserve the quality of food to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses.” There must be planning and oversight to ensure food is safe and nutritious. Food safety is essential for preventing food-borne illnesses, ensuring nutritional need, and maintaining consumer trust in the food quality and access via the food industry. Food is such a vast commodity to oversee that contaminations are a constant threat.
Ensuring food safety requires comprehensive planning and strict adherence to sanitary practices by food producers, processors, and vendors. Without these measures, contamination can lead to widespread outbreaks, causing severe health consequences and significant economic losses. In the United States alone, foodborne illnesses are responsible for an estimated 48 million cases and 3,000 deaths each year (USDA, 2020).
Meat safety is particularly concerning due to its frequent association with outbreaks. Proper sanitation of equipment, water sources, and facilities is essential to minimizing contamination risks. Floors must be kept clean to prevent both contamination and workplace injuries, such as slips and falls(Canning 2023). Additionally, workers must maintain strict hygiene practices and wear protective gear, including gloves, masks, and specialized clothing for extreme cold or heat. Handling raw meat exposes workers to harmful bacteria such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria, which can lead to severe gastrointestinal infections. (Burlage 2011). Between 2012 and 2019, Salmonella outbreaks were linked to beef 27 times (Canning, 2023), underscoring the need for stringent food safety protocols.
Foodborne illnesses are largely preventable through strict hygiene measures, particularly during meat processing. High-risk populations—including children, the elderly, and individuals with weakened immune systems—are especially vulnerable to contaminated food. Moreover, the globalization of food production has increased the risk of contamination due to complex supply chains and inconsistent regulations across different countries. As food safety remains a persistent public health challenge, stronger safeguards and oversight are necessary to reduce the risk of meatborne diseases and protect consumers.
History
It is important to remember the history that has brought the US to the current state. In the book “The Jungle” Upton Sinclair divulges the perilous practices of the meat processing system, via his role as an undercover journalist working and witnessing horrid conditions of meat packing factory. His crusade was to emotionally strike his readers with the trickle down consequences of capitalism to the poor immigrants. His disparagement of people caring more about profits than workers took the backseat in the attention economy of the time. Shocking depictions of the meat-packing stop between the farm to table believed to be ideal was forever tarnished with piles of meat covered with rats and their feces. As the public read about the futility of immigrants’ grueling work, the stories ripped the audience’s attention from his intended focal point of poverty and capitalism. The tipping-point focus moved from the poor workers, to their work environment and what was in contact with the readers’ dinner table. Society still hasn’t shaken the whisper of wondering what is actually in sausage or a hotdog. The outcry was immediate. There was outrage and an immediate intense demand for consumers to have protections and facilities to have transparency and accountability.
The governing body of the United States food safety is the Food and Drug Administration with the United States Department of Agriculture in charge of regulations and inspection to ensure safety. Another important safeguard group is the Centers for Disease Control who investigate foodborne illness (Food Safety 2018).
References:
Canning et al. – Journal of Food Protection – 2023 United States Department of Agriculture. Food safety. www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety. Updated October 21, 2020. Accessed February 28, 2025.
Dineen, K.K., Lowe, A., Kass, N.E. et al. Treating Workers as Essential Too: An Ethical Framework for Public Health Interventions to Prevent and Control COVID-19 Infections among Meat-processing Facility Workers and Their Communities in the United States . Bioethical Inquiry 19, 301–314 (2022).
“The Current US Food Safety System.” Edited by National Academies Press (US), Institute of Medicine (US) and National Research Council (US) Committee to Ensure Safe Food from Production to Consumption., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2018.