The Chemistry of Fireworks

At some point, most everyone has a chance to be exposed to the awing nature of fireworks. As children, we may only see them on the television while we watch a New Years celebration, snuggled up with our parents. We continue to be exposed through our lifetimes, perhaps under the stars on the Fourth of July. But no matter the age difference, reality seems to escape with each colorful explosion. The pleasure alone lies in the magnificent bursts before our eyes.

This week, we look at the chemistry of fireworks.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "In order to learn the most important lessons of life, one must each day surmount a fear." - Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist, philosopher, poet, and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century, 1803 - 1882)

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HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits

In 1972 there was an outbreak of botulism from commercially canned potato soup. This outbreak prompted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to promulgate regulations for the production of low acid canned foods. These regulations had many of the basic concepts found in HACCP. In this same year, FDA inspectors were trained in HACCP principles and their application, but it took more "accidents at the intersection" and nearly twenty years for HACCP to really take hold.

A critical limit ensures that a biological, chemical or physical hazard is controlled by a CCP. Each CCP should have at least one critical limit. Critical limits must be something that can be monitored by measurement or observation. They must be scientifically and/or regulatory based. Examples include: temperature, time, pH, water activity or available chlorine.

This week, we look at HACCP Principle 3: Establish Critical Limits.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "The ultimate choice for a man, in as much as he is given to transcend himself, is to create or destroy, to love or to hate." - Erich Fromm (internationally renowned Jewish-German-American social psychologist, psychoanalyst, and humanistic philosopher, 1900 - 1980)

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Deja Moo? Unpasteurized milk products and tuberculosis

A rare form of tuberculosis caused by illegal, unpasteurized dairy products, including the popular queso fresco cheese, is rising among Hispanic immigrants in Southern California and raising fears about a resurgence of a strain all but eradicated in the US. Cases of the Mycobacterium bovis strain of TB have increased in San Diego county, particularly among children who drink or eat dairy foods made from the milk of infected cattle. The germ can infect anyone who eats contaminated fresh cheeses sold by street vendors, smuggled across the Mexican border or produced by families who try to make a living selling so-called “bathtub cheese” made in home tubs and backyard troughs.

Unlike typical TB, caused by the M. tuberculosis strain, the bovine variety is not easily spread through human-to-human contact. It settles less often in the lungs, making it less likely to be transmitted through breathing and coughing. However, the M. bovis bug is resistant to front-line drug therapy and adults who contract it are more than twice as likely as those with traditional TB to die before treatment is complete.

At one point, TB was referred to as consumption, because it seemed to consume people from within, with a bloody cough, fever, pallor, and long relentless wasting. This week, a look at tuberculosis.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "It's not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it." - John Wooden (retired American basketball coach, most notably at UCLA, 1910 - )

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HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points

HACCP represents an important food protection tool supported by Standard Operating Procedures, employee training and other prerequisite programs that small independent businesses as well as national companies can implement to achieve active managerial control of hazards associated with foods. Employees must learn which control points are critical in an operation and what the critical limits are at these points, for each preparation step they perform. Establishment management must also follow through by routinely monitoring the food operation to verify that employees are keeping the process under control by complying with the critical limits.

A critical control point is any step in which hazards can be prevented, eliminated or reduced to acceptable levels. CCPs are usually practices/procedures which, when not done correctly, are the leading causes of foodborne illness outbreaks. Examples of critical control points include: cooking, cooling, re-heating, holding.

This week, we look at HACCP Principle 2: Identify Critical Control Points.

TTFN, Fred.

Quote of the week: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light." - Plato (classical Greek philosopher, ~427 BC – ~347 BC)

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