Health Code Violations: Dangerous for Business and Lives - Essay Sample

Introduction

Health codes are policies put in place to ensure that restaurants engage in the provision of healthy foods and other products to the clients. However, there exist some instances when restaurants violet the set standards or health codes. The violations of health code are bad for business, essential, they can lead to the death of people. For instance, in the year 1993, over one hundred people became ill, and four individuals died after eating burgers that were not cooked properly from Jack restaurant (Kwon et. al., 2010). According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the number of people dying from contaminated food is staggering. According to the above research organization, close to one hundred and twenty-eight thousand Americans are hospitalized every year as a result of food-borne illnesses. Out of the above number at least three thousand people die from the same illnesses. Therefore, in restaurants, it is necessary for the management and all the workers to ensure that there is adherence to the health codes to reduce food-borne illnesses.

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The two restaurants under consideration include Perkins Restaurant and Bakery and Hardee's Restaurant. In Perkins Restaurant, the code violation involved the handling of food which could possibly lead to contamination. From the restaurant, the cloves were changed, and thereafter, hands cleaned after cracking eggs into the bowl. Thereafter, the bowl was handled with the new gloves (Price, 2012). However, the bowl was covered with the raw eggs and could not be handled without actually contaminating hands or gloves. From the health codes, the cracking of eggs into the bowl and thereafter handling of the beater and bowl should be initiated as a continuous task. In the process of interchanging gloves, there is a high possibility of contamination due to contacts with various surfaces.

In Hardee's restaurant, the health code violation was observed when it comes to the handling of food materials. From the observation, the slicer was visibly soiled. In such case, the slicer could have been completely taken off, washed, rinsed and sanitized for most every four hours. The soiled utensils may consist of bacteria or pathogens that may lead to the contamination of food (Roberts et al., 2011). Before using given kitchen equipment, it is necessary to ensure that they are cleaned, well rinsed to reduce chances of contacting food-borne diseases.

In Perkins Restaurant, the outcome of interchanging gloves while handling eggs may lead to the introduction of food-borne diseases, a scenario which may cause contamination of other foods in the kitchen. In addition, before using gloves, it is necessary to ensure that they are cleaned and dried to reduce contacts with food or air-borne diseases (Roberts et al., 2011). The potential outcome of this violation is infections to the clients who may get involved in purchasing foods from the restaurant. Alternatively, the situation may also lead to the lead of the persons affected. In Hardee's restaurant, the violation in handling the equipment may lead to the contamination not only to the food being handled at that time but also to other forms of food being prepared in the restaurant. The outcome of the food contamination is the infection of the clients, a scenario which may lead to death and the spread of food-borne diseases. In most cases, when the equipment is contaminated there is a high possibility of spreading diseases to other forms of food being sold in the same restaurant.

Reference

Kwon, J., Roberts, K. R., Shanklin, C. W., Liu, P., & Yen, W. S. (2010). Food safety training needs assessment for independent ethnic restaurants: a review of health inspection data in Kansas. Food Protection Trends, 30(7), 412-421.

Price, R. (2012). 9 HACCP for delicatessens and meat, poultry and. HACCP in Meat, Poultry, and Fish Processing, 10, 182.

Roberts, K., Kwon, J., Shanklin, C., Liu, P., & Yen, W. S. (2011). Food safety practices lacking in independent ethnic restaurants. Journal of culinary science & technology, 9(1), 1-16.