WHAT DOES BACTERIA LIKES?

Bacteria is everywhere. We have to live with bacteria everyday. Good bacteria improve our health while bad bacteria cause us food poisoning. Bacteria stick on our hair, face, hands, shirts and trousers.  So, food handlers should how to prevent bacteria from contaminating the food they prepare. Knowing how bacteria grow would help us to control bacteria quantity in our food premise.

Bacteria consume nutrient from any source. So, leftover food or food debris on equipment and food premise could be consumed by bacteria. Food with high protein and high-water content is the best source that bacteria would actively grow on it. We call these kinds of food as high-risk foods.  The example of high-risk food are eggs and egg products, seafood and seafood products, meat, dairy products and ready-to-eat food.  Therefore, food handlers should handle these products in hygienic and cook them thoroughly before serving. 

Bacteria grow optimally in 37^oC (body temperature).  In fact, bacteria start to grow actively from the range of 5^oC to 63^oC at any source with nutrient.  We should not keep, especially high-risk food in this temperature range for a long time.      We can keep the food at 4^oC and below or we can cook the food thoroughly in order to kill bacteria in food. When food had to be served for a long time, we can install heating system, which continuously heating the food above 63^oC.

When bacteria in the condition of danger temperature zone for a long time, bacteria will grow rapidly.  In normal condition, bacteria would double the quantity in every 20-30 minutes. How many would it be?  You might not believe it… One (1) bacterium can split to 1 million bacteria in 6 hours!  And, that is only 1 bacterium. Imagine that! So, do not keep food for so long.  It’s better to serve the food to customer as soon as the food is ready.

Bacteria grow in food and any places with high water content.  Equipment and facilities need to be washed thoroughly and dried. All dry equipment should be kept at dry place.  After handling food, food handlers should clean the food premise before going home.

Bacteria growth could be controlled when food handlers implement appropriate food hygiene practices.  The lesser the (bad) bacteria in food, the safer the food to be consumed by our customers.