Whenever students purchase meat or produce from stores like Walmart or Hy-Vee, the food itself goes through a detailed inspection before it’s declared safe to eat.

Several hazards can be involved during inspection such as physical, chemical and microbiological hazards.

“They do everything from look at the live animal as well as make sure nothing is adulterated into the product, whether that’s a chemical or physical hazard associating with the processing of it or a microbiological component that could be in that product,” said Jonathan Campbell, extension program specialist for animal science.

The Hazard Anaylsis Critical Control Point, is another source of inspection that meat establishments use to produce safe food.

“You cannot ensure 100 percent food safety by testing the product alone, you would utilize up all the food into testing the product to ensure 100 percent food safety,’ Campbell said.

Physical hazards would include objects such as pieces of plastic or metal getting placed with the meat. However, physical hazards are typically identified before the meat is sent to retail.

“Most meat establishments have X-rays and metal detectors to detect any physical hazards,” Campbell said.

Chemical hazards would include things such as overcleaning of a food product or pesticide residue.

“Records can be kept if there’s an overuse of a cleaning product or an improper mix of sanitizers; establishments can monitor those items throughout the day so if they have a problem, they can go back and correct it before a product ever leaves the facility,” Campbell said.

For Byron Brehm-Stetcher, assistant professor of food science and human nutrition, overcleaning the food isn’t the necessary issue.

“Some organisms might be internalized. Take a piece of spinach — if it’s cut, it’s got a surface where the potential pathogens present can get in, and that’s going to potentially deliver them directly into the vascular system, which is inside the plant,” Stetcher said.

“If you’re washing your lettuce, first of all, it’s pretty difficult to physically remove a lot of pathogens that may be there, but if they’re internalized, then whatever you’re applying from the exterior is not going to affect them.”

Pathogens, more commonly known as germs, are an example of a microbiological hazard. For meat products, microbiological hazards include hazards like salmonella, E.coli and listeria, which is a hazard for ready-to-eat processed meats.

“Each animal, before it goes through the harvest process, goes through an antemortem inspection. If there’s any signs of disease or if an animal’s lethargic and has trouble getting up, that’s not normal. Those animals go under USDA inspection; at that point, they’re considered a suspect animal and they’re monitored more closely,” Campbell said.

For safety standards, Stetcher stresses other methods that food insustries use before declaring a food product safe to consume.

“There are different standards for micro-level performance that can come in at various levels; there it can be mandated at a federal level where you have zero tolerance, which means fewer than one organism in 25 grams in food,” he said. “For example, a big processing food company is getting a grain ingredient from another company, what they might say is ‘You need to ensure that there are no fewer than X amount of total organisms in here per gram,’ zero pathogens and specify which pathogens.”

Another hazard not previously mentioned that Campbell stresses is the misconception of food labels.

“There’s still ways to label things; for example, free range — that regulation only states that that animal has to have access to the outside,” he said.

“If you have free-range eggs, you can have a similair intensive indoor growing establishment for that chicken or that hen, and if they have access to the outside to all the food and water, they have access to go outside but they’ll most likely remain inside due to air conditioning and heat.”

Despite this, food establishments can label those eggs free range at that point, he said.

“It’s very vague; there’s still some truth in labeling issues there that the general public still does not understand.”

When purchasing food, Stetcher and Campbell urge the consumers to take some responsiblity such as double checking where consumers get their source of information.

“One of the most difficult things for consumers is finding a good source that they feel comfortable being educated with. We have Internet pretty much anywhere we can have it — you can look up anything with it; it’s not always very facutal,” Campbell said. “If you get ahold of incorrect or erroneous information, it may change your views prior to purchasing something.”

Stetcher suggests the FIFO principle, otherwise known as the first in, first out principle.

“Food that’s located right up front on a shelf is typically the most fresh, and if you’re getting something from the bottom of the cooler, that’s where more cool air is going to be typically, because cool air is more dense,” Stetcher said.

“One thing consumers have to do is be aware of how there is potential pathogens on different types of foods, and they have to be aware of how they can mitigate those issues like proper cooking and proper storage,” he said. “Once it’s in your hands, you’ve got a lot of control over it.”