Food Safety Training in Saskatoon

Food Handling Course in Saskatoon
Sign up for a food handling course and Food Safety Training in Saskatoon in Saskatoon and learn proper food serving, preparing and storing techniques.

The burden of food safety is a heavy burden to bear for any country in the world. With a lack of complete data, getting a general view on foodborne illness (FBI) can be very difficult. This leads to poor prevention and management of the illnesses categorized under FBIs. In Canada alone, FBIs are estimated to affect approximately 4.5 million people annually. The major symptom of the condition – diarrhea – is reported to kill more than 2 million people each year as well. If this isn’t reason enough for you to learn about food Safety Training in Saskatoon, read on.

How to Register for Food Safety Training in Saskatoon

To register for a food handling course in Saskatoon use the following contact information:

Food safety and fooborne illness = how they relate to each other

Foodborne illness is caused by the ingestion of substances that cause disease (or symptoms similar to a disease). These substances are either pathogens or chemicals. Pathogens is a name for microorganisms that cause disease. On the other hand, chemicals such as pesticides cause poisoning – which has the same symptoms as most FBIs. When these substances end up on food, the victim ends up with a disease categorized as a foodborne illness.

Signs and symptoms of an FBI: vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, loss of appetite, abdominal pain, abdominal cramps

The most common foodborne illness people get infected with are caused by the following microorganisms:

  1. Norovirus (Note: responsible for more than half of the cases of FBIs)
  2. Camplobacter spp.
  3. Clostridium perfringens
  4. Non-typhoidal Salmonella
  5. Staphylococcus aureus

While the Norovirus is estimated to cause about 58 percent of FBIs, it is hard to diagnose because the blood test for it is not widely available among health facilities and diagnostic laboratories. Similarly, any of the these viruses typically need blood examinations to be completely diagnosed because the symptoms are more or less the same for all FBIs.

Important factor: Food safety

Remember, you can only get infected by a foodborne illness if the food you consume is contaminated. Therefore, food safety in the food handling process which renders food products safe for public consumption is the most important preventive measure society can understand to reduce the incidence of FBIs. If food safety is not practiced during any step of the food handling process, there is a greater risk that the finished food product is contaminated and can cause illness.

But how can you practice food safety? Through management of personal hygiene and workplace sanitation. Beyond making sure that raw produce and meat are bought from safe suppliers or markets, it is important that the food service workers is clean and his/her workplace completely sanitized throughout the entire food preparation.

Available training at Saskatoon First Aid

At Saskatoon First Aid, we offer FoodSafe level 1 and FoodSafe level 2 training. These programs last between one and two days, depending on the kind of class the student takes. Both levels, however, focus on keeping a safe food handling process at home and in a food establishment.

  1. FoodSafe 1 – An eight-hour course completed over a single eight-hour session (over 1 day) or two four-hour sessions (over 2 days). It is a basic training course on food safety open to anyone with an interest in the topic.
  2. FoodSafe 2 – A twelve-hour course completed over two days, from 9 AM to 4 PM (with a one-hour break during lunch). It is an advanced training course that focuses on management of food establishments, targeting supervisory staff and establishment owners.