Food-borne illness and food poisoning are a common risk anytime one relies on another to prepare food. The cleanliness and safety of the prepared food is only as good as that person’s commitment to keep preparation tools and surfaces sanitized as well as avoid cross-contamination. While cities and counties regularly inspect commercial facilities that provide prepared food, they can’t catch every risk, and that’s where problems end up happening.
A Small But Powerful Source of Sickness
The primary food sickness cause, at the microscopic level, can be attributed to bacteria or parasites, or pathogens, and the problem is not uncommon. Almost 50 million people get sick from bad food annually. While the great majority of people suffer from a bit of a bad stomach, indigestion, and a hefty bout with some quick Pepto Bismol relief, a small percentage end up needing serious hospital help. Worse, a smaller, acute number in the neighborhood of a few thousand end up passing away, unable to fend off the internal damage bad food can cause.
The symptoms and problems food sickness can bring on include botulism, hepatitis A, e. Coli or salmonella infections, or water-borne infections like listeria. However, diarrhea and nausea are not the end of the reactions. Far more permanent problems can include blood poisoning via sepsis, ongoing irritable bowel syndrome, loss of pregnancy, nerve damage, and even meningitis.
Food Contamination is Easy
Unfortunately, the risks of food poisoning are far more possible than people think. Some prepared foods are also more likely to have issues than others too. Undercooked meats can easily generate bacteria in a number of hours at room temperature. Seafood is another highly risky food, especially uncooked oysters and shellfish. Depending on where they are grown and handled, vegetables and fruit can be exposed to surface bacteria, which, when not washed, can stay contaminated. And raw dairy products can also be prone to causing serious intestinal sickness.
Adding to the complexity of food care, food vulnerabilities can also occur with shipping and storage. Even if a food preparer does everything right, the food manufacturer may have been compromised. This happens with meat processors, packing houses, storage and warehousing, and poor refrigeration. This can make it really challenging on a practical level to determine who is responsible for the poor food safety involved.
Responsibility is Required for Food Safety
However, the key factor is that everyone involved in providing consumers with prepared food is responsible for keeping that food safe. Collectively, that responsibility is shared; if even one falls down, the rest of the chain has to pick up the slack and stop bad food from reaching a consumer. If not, they can all be held liable.
A victim of bad food preparation and related side effects in Minnesota has alternatives. A Minnesota food injury lawyer can help. Utilizing the legal system, a legal resource can hold responsible companies and parties accountable for not performing their required duty of care toward food safety. Victims don’t need to suffer alone. Not doing anything is the biggest regret people can have with a food poisoning event, and it’s entirely avoidable. Taking the leap into viable legal representation is the first but most effective step for your recovery, especially when your food poisoning didn’t need to happen.
