As people become lazy or have more time on their hands due to a variety of work, study and social commitments, convenience foods are playing an important role in the diet of many people around the world. After a recent listeria outbreak there have been some concerns that convenience foods may pose health risks. This study will examine the safety risks associated with convenience foods. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Are the risks of convenience foods too high? Convenience foods, referred to in this study, are commercially prepared refrigerated packaged foods created for consumers as an easy way to obtain and consume a dish of their choice. Since the 1920s, when Clarence Birdseye discovered that peas could be blanched and frozen quickly, refrigeration has allowed many food products, such as cooked vegetables and meat, to be stored and used at other times for convenience. The proliferation of larger supermarkets in the 1940s and 1950s, equipped with reliable refrigeration systems, allowed customers with freezers to purchase pre-prepared frozen foods such as frozen peas, beans and carrots to save time and the color and taste were comparable to fresh seasonal cooked vegetables and these became a staple in many Australian family diets. According to Bee Wilson, in 1948 only two percent of households in Britain had a refrigerator, and convenience foods became more popular as refrigeration became more convenient. Thus, in 1968, approximately 94% of Australian households had a refrigerator which enabled them to store prepared foods, whether home-made or shop-bought. The popularity of the convenience food industry has grown enormously, so much so that Statista, a market research company, estimates it is worth more than $380 million a year in Australia. Australian Food News reported in 2010 that CHOICE, a major consumer advocacy group, conducted research that found fresh frozen foods offered comparatively better nutritional value than "fresh" foods vacuum-packed with carbon dioxide and nitrogen and refrigerated for long periods of time. Freezing vegetables can retain nutrients, and as families continue to be short on time, the availability of pre-prepared fresh fruit and vegetables, such as bagged mixed lettuce, cut squash and chopped root vegetables, has also increased. The Cost of Convenience] In recent years there seems to have been a recall of pre-prepared frozen or packaged fruits and vegetables every few weeks or so. Foods contaminated with microorganisms such as Listeria, E coli, salmonella hepatitis have been common in the news. According to Food Standards Australia there have been 174 recalls due to contamination by microorganisms in the last 10 years. Microcontamination has been found in numerous frozen foods, including frozen pomegranate, and has contributed to the deaths of some consumers. Microcontamination caused hepatitis A outbreaks in NSW earlier this year and, after an investigation, Creative Gourmet's 180g frozen pomegranate arils were withdrawn from sale in April. SA Health again reminded people in May to throw away the product after it was linked to 11 cases of hepatitis. Professor Paddy Phillips SA Health Chief Medical Officer and Chief Public Health Officer recently revealed that a 64-year-old South Australian woman died on 5 June 2018 after being admitted to hospital with the infection caused by this product. He claimed only 226of the 2,000 million parcels of pomegranate arils grown in Egypt have been returned, although many more may have been disposed of by consumers after the warning. Nationally, 24 cases of hepatitis A, including two in South Australia, have been linked to this product from the Entyce Food Ingredients company. In May 2017, after another hepatitis A scare, around 45,000 packs of Creative Gourmet berries with a use-by date of 15 January 2021 were recalled, and in July 2018 Food Standards Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ) issued a warning and recalled some brands of frozen vegetables, some of which were imported from Europe and sold by Aldi, Woolworths and Aldi stores. This occurred after a Listeria outbreak that killed six people in Victoria and New South Wales was traced to these brands. Contamination is likely to occur when preparation and storage are compromised. For example, if frozen vegetables are thawed and then re-frozen and thawed for use, the bacteria can multiply, causing consumers to become ill when they consume the product. Frozen foods are convenient, taste reasonably fresh when stored and used correctly, and are an economical solution to eating vegetables out of season. However, contaminated frozen foods can pose a serious health risk to people. What food poisoning problems are encountered in the hospitality industry? Food safety should be a number one priority for every food and beverage outlet, regardless of its size. Without clearly defined food safety standards in the workplace, things like food poisoning from convenience foods can occur. Food poisoning is an illness that occurs when food contaminated with harmful bacteria or toxins is digested. There are 24 different food hygiene laws and regulations across Australia. On top of that, there are over 700 local councils with different statutes to regulate food businesses. It costs governments $18.6 million (net) per year to implement the system currently in operation, and it costs small businesses approximately $337 million per year to comply. Approximately sixty to eighty percent of foodborne illnesses arise from the food service industry. Every day in Australia 11,500 people become ill with some type of food-borne illness. That's 4.2 million cases of foodborne illness every year. There is no denying that food poisoning is expensive, there are over 500,000 cases a year in the UK according to research by the Food Standards Agency, and estimates in the US put the cost at $77 billion – almost double the annual cost of the common cold. Not only can food poisoning be an unpleasant experience for the victim, but it can also be crippling for the company from which the outbreak originates, due to a tarnished reputation for quality or, in the worst case, a lawsuit. Fast food restaurants and salad bars, rare 50 years ago, are now a primary source of food consumption for many Australians. There are just over 24 million Australians and they eat out on average two or three times a week. This is more than 50 million meals served every week, or 2.5 billion in a year. The number of food service outlets in Australia is estimated to have grown by 57% and Australians spend 30% of their food budget on takeaways and dining out. Problems occur if proper food handling procedures are not followed. A high tea at the Langham hotel in Melbourne in 2015 was.