Food Safety Basics

Food Safety Basics — page 1

Food Safety Basics — page 2 — CHAPTER ONE HISTORY OF FOOD SAFETY Y ou have just come home from school The first thing you do is head to the refrigerator for some cold milk You start to fill up your glass Wait What’s that terrible odor Your nose tells you the milk is not fresh Will you drink it Of course not You know spoiled milk is not safe to drink Early people learned about food safety the hard way They ate or drank foods that had spoiled and Food safety guidelines have developed over thousands of years as scientists learn more about foods 5

Food Safety Basics — page 3 — they became sick Thousands of years ago people began searching for ways to preserve foods to keep them fresh and safe The concern for food safety continued throughout history Now government agencies are responsible for food safety throughout the worldwide food industry Keep It Dry Early people in many parts of the world preserved foods by drying them Ancient Egyptians built silos or storage tanks to hold large quantities of dry grain Ancient Romans dried food by salting it Native Americans braided together the husks of several ears of corn and hung them over tree branches or poles to dry in the wind Today scientists know the water in moist foods can enable harmful substances such as bacteria yeasts and molds to multiply and make people sick Early people learned that removing moisture from foods makes them last longer 6

Food Safety Basics — page 4 — Native Americans dried fish and meat to keep them f r e s h l o n g e r Keep It Cold Some foods must be kept cold to slow the growth of germs that can make people sick Early people living in cold climates preserved foods by packing them in snow or leaving them outside to freeze In warmer regions people harvested blocks of ice from frozen lakes in winter They stored the ice in insulated icehouses so it could be used during other seasons Packing foods in ice helps keep them fresh and safe from harmful microorganisms 7

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