Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
Control of Pathogens at Retail
G.K. Kozak , Jackie Crichton , and Jeffrey Farber
2.1
Introduction
The Public Health Agency of Canada estimates that each year roughly one in eight
Canadians (or four million people) gets sick, with a domestically acquired food-
borne illness (Thomas et al.
2013
). There are 30 known pathogens that can cause
foodborne illness (Thomas et al.
2013
) and they are responsible for about 40 % of
the foodborne illnesses in Canada. However, the remaining 60 % of the illnesses are
caused by unspecifi ed agents (Thomas et al.
2013
). These unspecifi ed agents were
defi ned as: agents with insuffi cient data to estimate agent-specifi c burden; known
agents not yet identifi ed as causing foodborne illness; microbes, chemicals, or other
substances known to be in food whose ability to cause illness is unproven, and
agents not yet identifi ed (Thomas et al.
2013
). Each year, 31 major pathogens
acquired in the USA are responsible for 9.4 million episodes of foodborne illness,
about 56,000 hospitalizations, and 1,300 deaths (Scallan et al.
2011
). For those
