Pizza and Pathogens

Bacteria: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Brought to you by the Auburn University Center for Detection and Food Safety.

Lesson No. 1

Imagine a world with5,000,000 trillion trillion humans.

Hint: There’s not enough room!

No air, air … Without bacteria.

Brrrr… Nothing but ice and water?

Bacteria even love warm temperatures…

Red Sulphur bacteria hang

out at volcanoes to

eat!

Bacteria eat what we don’t want to eat!

In fact, without bacteria we wouldn’t

be able to live.

Or eat salads.

We couldn’t breath.

We couldn’t even eat a Big

Mac.

So, wait a second.

Bacteria is good?

Say what?

Introducing … The Bad Guys (Well, some of them)

Some of you may be familiar with things bad bacteria cause.

• Body Odor (Gross)• Moldy food• Sore throats• Ear infections• Bad breath

You get the picture.

3,000 deaths128,000 hospital trips

48,000,000 illnesses in all

Foodborne pathogens [fancy word for bad bacteria] also caused …

That’s just in one year!

How does all that bad

bacteria get in our food?