Noah Swart

Blog Topic

Fat Tom – Hygiene

Mr. Moss

Keep in mind how safe are the foods you eat

  When it comes to food, hygiene is the largest concerns many people have with it. When you buy something from a fast-food establishment, or a grocery store you expect it to be safe for consumption. Along with this you expect the employees of such establishment to have proper hygiene. The term FAT-TOM has become very popular in the food service industry.

  The term FAT-TOM is a mnemonic wording used to describe six conditions that are typically present in the growth of food-borne pathogens. F stands for food, being that food is the substance microorganisms will feed off of.  A stands for the acidity that needs to be present around the areas of pH 4-7.5 to thrive properly in a condition. T stands for the time that is typically required for a bacterial organism to survive and grow, typically in the case of three hours. The second T stands for temperature, for typically microorganisms and bacteria can’t survive in extreme heat or extreme cold. O stands for the oxygen, because very few forms of life can survive without sufficient oxygen. 

Finally M stands for Moisture, which is the biggest key factor in the growth of mold and pathogens.

Don't sanitize in plastic

  Food safety is typically regulated by the FDA and other big federal institutions, but oversight is always a big problem. It should be up to the business to properly hire and train employee’s that understand the dangers such bacterial organisms can show. It also rests on the individual to understand such dangers poor hygiene can prove to themselves and others around them. Vigilance is an actual proper form of industrial and hygienic safety. Reporting such violations is possible through food safety hotlines and organizations. The FDA has a report page for large corporate violations, and such whistle-blower report pages. FAT-TOM just briefly scrapes the edge of such problems and shows an underlining hygienic problem in our society.