Restaurant dish washing has no effect on contagious stomach virus

Restaurant dish washing has no effect on contagious stomach virus


(NaturalNews) Current dish washing practices in restaurants are
completely inadequate for preventing the spread of one the most common
agents of foodborne illness, according to a study conducted by
researchers from Ohio State University and published in the journal PLoS ONE.

"We
know that when public food establishments follow the cleaning
protocols, they do a very good job at getting rid of bacteria,"
researcher Melvin Pascall said. "Now we can see that the protocols are
less effective at removing and killing viruses - and this may help
explain why there are still so many illnesses caused by
cross-contaminated food."

The study focused on the spread of
norovirus, a virus responsible for the majority of gastroenteritis
epidemics in the United States, and 90 percent of non-bacterial
gastroenteritis outbreaks. The virus is highly contagious and is
well-known for causing "stomach flu" outbreaks on cruise ships and in
other closed settings. It is responsible for approximately 91,000
emergency room visits each year, as well as 23,000 hospitalizations of
children under the age of five for severe diarrhea.

"Norovirus
spreads rapidly through confined populations and can easily contaminate
food or water," said norovirus expert Kurt Stevenson, who was not
involved in the study. "Numerous point-source outbreaks are attributed
to contaminated water sources where food is grown and cultivated or
through the improper handling of food by infected handlers."

Virus unaffected by dishwashing

To
test whether standard food service cleaning practices are effective at
removing norovirus, the researchers infused cream cheese and reduced fat
milk with either murine norovirus (MNV-1) or with one of two forms of
bacteria, Escherichia coli (E. coli K-12) or Listeria innocua (L.
innocua). Dairy products were selected because they are known to be
difficult to clean off.

The infused dairy products were spread
onto glassware, ceramic plates and stainless steel utensils, which were
then washed either with a commercial dishwasher or by hand. All washing made use of chlorine and quaternary ammonium compound (QAC)-based sanitary protocols.

Both
hand and machine washing effectively reduced the levels of both
bacterial species enough to meet safety thresholds, although dishes
washed by hand were more likely to retain bacterial traces. Neither
technique; however, significantly reduced the presence of norovirus at
all.

"Even though the protocols were able to kill some of the virus,
norovirus is highly contagious and it takes only a few viral particles
to infect humans," researcher Jianrong Li, said. "These results would
indicate that the neither the detergents nor sanitizers used in current
cleaning protocols are effective against the norovirus at the currently
used concentrations."

When tested in isolation, the cleaning
agents did significantly reduce the concentration of norovirus, but
still not enough to prevent contagion. This suggests that the virus is
even more resilient when mixed with certain foods.

"Proper sanitation and handling remain the single biggest factor that can prevent cross-contamination of food
and dishware at food service establishments," Pascall said. "However,
it appears that we need to identify better agents or methods to
significantly reduce the presence of norovirus and work to update the
protocols."

Source:-
http://www.naturalnews.com/038359_restaurants_washing_dishes_stomach_virus.html