Your peanut butter might taste the same, but you might not feel the same after eating it. I remember when my dad called me after he heard about the peanut butter issues going on around the nation. He forbade me from eating peanuts and peanut butter, telling me my health is more important than my guilty pleasure. It remains a very vivid memory, for I am one of many people who deeply enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Peanuts and peanut butter nationwide have been recalled recently due to a salmonella outbreak that has made 575 people ill across 43 states. This outbreak, also the cause of 8 deaths across the nation, has obviously created a stir in our nation’s food industry, and not much time passed before research began on the peanut butter scare.

Temple University professor Jennifer Ibrahim, Ph.D., has understood that the problem with our food industry is not necessarily our food processing plants, which is often the victim of our blame. Of course, it is essential for our plants (that is, manufacturing plants), to be clean and sanitary, but another source of illness could stem from the farms, where the plants to be processed (that is, peanut plants) are grown and cultivated by farmhands that are not required to be vaccinated.

Seasoned farm workers are often unaware of the threat they can pose to the purity of our food, so they do not necessarily enact the greatest caution when handling our foods. Foods that are not cooked present a great danger when handled by unvaccinated farm workers, for high temperatures won’t be able to rid our foods of unwanted bacteria or viruses. Farm workers often shift farms frequently, nearly every 150 days, Ibrahim reported. With a frequent movement of workers from one farm to the next, disease can spread just as quickly. Right now, it’s the peanut butter, but what’s next?

Ibrahim suggested ways to minimize the spread of disease via prevention, enforcement, and understanding. It proves more cost-effective to vaccinate farm workers than to treat the infections afterwards while also greatly reducing the health risk imparted to the consumer. Enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Act is also critical to preventing disease spread. Although the Act is in place, many companies do not adhere to the ordinance by failing to provide adequate plumbing and hand washing facilities to their workers. Finally, it is also essential to inform the workers the importance of sanitation. An effective way of doing this since many workers are immigrants would be to provide culturally competent ways of education about disease prevention and treatment.

By following these guidelines, the public benefits due to the decreased risk, farms benefit by not having their food recalled, everybody benefits from a higher quality food supply, and I benefit because I get to continue eating my beloved peanuts. We all benefit, so what’s to lose?

Discussion Question: What other methods do you think could be implemented to help prevent the spread of disease in our food?
News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090220074835.htm