Darin Detwiler lost his son, Riley, nearly 30 years ago to an illness that many people had never even heard of at the time, E.coli. Riley’s case was linked to an outbreak originating from contaminated hamburgers sold by the restaurant food chain called Jack-In-The-Box. Except the thing is, it is reported that Riley never got the chance to eat the hamburger. He contracted the illness from another kid at daycare through what is known as secondary-transmission. Unfortunately, this only confirms the danger of pathogen like E. coli.
While three decades may have passed since the his son’s untimely death, Darin has become a food safety agent who is always doing his best to spread awareness about the issue of foodborne illnesses and give tips on how best to prevent them.
One piece of advice Darin gives fellow Americans is to avoid buffets. It is not uncommon, he says, for the food to be both undercooked and also held under unsanitary conditions. Because all consumers are serving themselves, there is no guarantee that everything you touch is clean. On top of this, it is all too common that employees may not be handling the food properly or wearing gloves. These add up to many people coming into contact with the food and food surfaces and equipment, all possible points of contamination. The food is then often left sitting out for long periods of time, encouraging the growth of a multitude of nasty bacteria and germs, including food borne E. coli.
Another tip Detwiler gives is to check out the restaurant’s bathroom. According to Daily Mail, he told Today, “When I go into a restaurant and the bathroom is dirty, I don’t even want to know what the kitchen looks like.” A failure to keep the restrooms clean may signal a failure to put cleanliness as a priority. Dirty bathrooms, though not necessarily, may indicate there are employees who do not wash their hands or follow the most basic food safety handling practices in the kitchen.
According to the CDC, “food workers must be extra diligent about hand hygiene because they are in a position to easily spread a fecal-oral disease through the food they prepare to anyone who eats it.” One cause of a deficit in hand-washing is the lack of emphasis on food-safety procedures within companies. The emphasis is often on speedy production, and “keeping up” at all costs. As such, many employees aren’t taught proper food-handling skills and wash their hands a lot less than necessary.
Darin also confessed, according to Today that he would “avoid eating red meat” after his son’s death. But in his studies, he also came to realized these bacteria can corrupt almost any food people consume. This includes raw meats, vegetables, and even fruits. Darin expressed it is incredibly important that this information is disseminated and people are reminded constantly so as to prevent thee needless deaths like Riley’s.
Thank you Darin for your continued vigilance!
