Eating Safe: The Steps to Prevent a Foodborne Illness
M. Williams
George Westinghouse Career Technical H.S.
Introduction:
You are a New York City Department of Health inspector. You have been alerted by your supervisor several outbreaks of illnesses in the Tri-state area. You have to determine the effects, causes and the type of food borne illness being discovered in several restaurants around the Tristate area.
Task:
After completing this research you must submit a 1-2 page paper and present your evidence.
Process/ Resources
You will be placed in groups of 4 to determine the causes and effects of a foodborne illness. . In groups you will need to pick a group leader, a health inspector, one scientist, and a recorder to determine:
1) What is the food involved?
2) How this food involved has made over 100 people sick in the course of a month?
3) What foodborne illness is being produced from the food involved?
4) Where is the source of this contamination?
5) How can we prevent this illness from spreading and affecting any more potential people?
You will use the PPA steps to analyze the problem.
1) The Problem: Clinton to Battle Foodborne illness
a) Get a list of all restaurants that have put out complaints of illnesses in their establishments.
b) Collect data from each restaurant, such as the items the customers consumed when they ate at the restaurant, the temperature log of the food items served during the day of the outbreak, and the list of food suppliers they use to deliver food to their establishments.
2) Gather Evidence: Preventing foodborne Disease
a) Collect evidence (which may be food items that were on the menu for that day), narrow down the evidence and determine the link of foods eaten by the majority of these consumers on the day of the outbreak or days before the outbreak was discovered.
b) Find the common food involved of all the restaurants that have reported sickness of customers.
3) Identify Causes: EATING WELL; A Food-Borne Illness That Still Isn't Getting The Attention It Deserves
a) You discover the common food involved of the majority of the restaurants. The common food involved is turkey deli meat.
b) Based on your common knowledge about food borne illness, find out the illness that may affect deli meat.
c) Compare the symptoms of the infected consumers to the side effects of the common foodborne illness that may contaminate deli meat.
d) Consider your research and determine what may be the likely foodborne illness.
4) Evaluate a policy: Improve Restaurant Report Cards
a) What policy can the food industry use to help prevent food borne illnesses?
b) How can we stop these foodborne illnesses from happening?
a) Based on your research: Explain, how you found the foods involved in the foodborne illness outbreak?
b) How can we stop these illnesses from contaminating our food from the source?
c) What steps must we take to as a food handler to help keep prevent foodborne illnesses from happening?
Evaluation:
Conclusion:
By completing this assignment, you will know how to do research and gather information. You will be able to develop a policy solution and give an oral presentation on your findings. You will have a better understanding of the causes, affects, and solutions of a foodborne illness and how to create a system to prevent these illnesses from happening. After completing this exercise, you should be able to answer the following:
1. What are causes of a foodborne illness?
2. What are some of the systems and directives put in place that already exist for the prevention of a foodborne illness?
3. What would be a good plan for an early warning system to help keep these foodborne illness outbreaks at a moderately low?
Standards
NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS
Standard 1: Analysis, Inquiry, and Design
Students will use scientific inquiry to pose questions, seek answers, and develop solutions.
Standard 2: Interconnectedness: Common Themes
Student will understand the relationships and common themes that connect mathematics, science, and technology and apply the themes to these and other areas of learning.
Standard 3: Science
Students will understand and apply scientific concepts, principles, and theories pertaining to the physical setting and living environment and recognize the historical development of ideas in science.
NEW YORK STATE STANDARDS FOR SCIENCE
S6d: Acquires information from multiple sources
S6c: Recognizes and limits sources of bias in data