Food safety is in your hands

The old adage is “Familiarity breeds contempt”. The new version might read “Familiarity breeds food poisoning.”

E. coli in meat, lysteria in cheese, salmonella in eggs; a daily run-down of what we might be consuming in our food reads like a lesson in Microbiology 101. According to the Centers for Disease Control, food-borne illness caused by these contaminates and others make 76 million Americans sick each year.

Annually, 325,000 of those sickened Americans are hospitalized and 5,000 of them die. That doesn’t include all of those who don’t report their illness to a doctor or go to the hospital. Too many of us are sick from our food.

Yes, the safety organizations and watchdogs need to do more. Yes, producers need to clean up their acts. And yes, there is a but coming. We, as consumers, must take an active role in keeping ourselves and our families safe at the dinner table.

Here is why. Some things just can’t be done. Take the recent egg recall and the illnesses caused by salmonella tainted eggs.

Approximately 80 billion eggs are sold in American supermarkets annually. If we could actually check each and every one of those eggs before it left the producer, the effort would be astronomical. (This does not include the many steps an egg goes through before it reaches your fork.)

Based on those 80 billion eggs and an American worker who puts in the average 2,080 work hours a year; it would take 10,864 workers to check each and every one of those eggs. That is if they could check 1 egg every second for 8 hours without slowing, stopping or taking a break. You can see the problem.

Back to those many steps between egg producer and your plate. How many people actually touch your egg before you prepare it?

In America we are very lucky. We have one of the most affordable and accessible food supplies in the world. Our food comes to us by plane, train, ship and truck every hour of every day and we have more choices than we can appreciate.

Our food supply is going through a lot of hands, not the least of which are our own. The bottom line is that we have much of the responsibility for the safety of food in our homes and we are not doing a good job.

When I talk to health care providers who are familiar with the problems of food-borne illness, the majority of them report that the biggest problem is the consumer. Foods are not stored properly or prepared properly.

Get back to basics on food safety. Keep it clean. Regulate the temperature. Don’t mix cooked and raw. When in doubt; throw it out!

Running water is what cleans your hands and your food. You must run water over your food long enough for it to wash the bad stuff off the surface, out of the nooks and crannies and down the drain.

This includes food that will be peeled. The very act of peeling or cutting moves bacteria from the surface of the food into the inside area you will be consuming.

Scrub your hands and scrub your food but keep them under running water while you sing the “Alphabet Song” at least once – all the letters, all the way through. Don’t let anyone touch your food – or food surfaces- unless they have also washed their hands properly.

Clean all surfaces that touch food. That includes towels for drying your hands and cloths and sponges that touch kitchen surfaces.

Keep raw stuff away from cooked stuff. The best way to do this is to prepare raw food, put it into containers and then clean down all surfaces, utensils and hands. Don’t use a container or platter for cooked food if has not been washed after holding raw food.

Having separate cutting boards for cooked food, meats and produce is a great way to keep from cross-contaminating (letting the bacteria from one form of food move onto other kinds of food.) Using different colored boards for each kind of food makes it easier.

Temperature is important. Food should be below 40 degrees or above 145 degrees. Each kind of food should be cooked to the correct temperature to kill bacteria and make it safe to eat.

When it comes to those eggs – the rules are simple. Do not eat raw eggs – that includes that delectable cookie dough that contains raw eggs. Cook eggs until the yolk is totally cooked. NO runny yolks.

Wash your hands and kitchen surfaces after touching eggs. Most of the contaminants are on the surface of the shell.

When it comes to ground meats, cook them until they reach 160 degrees on the inside. Ground meats cannot be eaten rare because the contaminants on the outside have been distributed throughout the meat. All of the meat must be cooked thoroughly for safety.

Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. This includes leftovers. If you have planned to cook enough food for another meal, separate out the amount you plan to save before you serve the rest.

Once food is cooked and moved to the table, it has a limited safe life. Consume it within two hours (one hour if the temperature is 90 degrees or above). Anything kept for another day should be refrigerated of frozen before that time is up.

When cooling or freezing food, do it in small batches in shallow containers. Large containers of food cool too slowly allowing harmful bacteria to form.

Leftover can only be safely eaten for a short time. Most leftovers should be consumed within 4 days or less depending on the food.

Go to your library or the Internet to read all the rules for safe handling of food. Brochures are available at both sources.

Last rule: if in doubt; throw it out. Most of us don’t want to waste food, especially if we like it. Food costs a lot and we don’t want to waste the money; but a trip to the emergency room and days lost from work cost a lot more. It is not worth the risk.

Don’t get complacent. Just because you have been sloppy with food safety and never had a problem doesn’t mean you aren’t putting yourself and everyone else who eats your food at risk. You’re playing a dangerous game of bacteria roulette with your health. Be food smart to be food safe.

This column appeared in the Greene County Record August 26, 2010.

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