Food Poisoning on the Home Front
by Ronnee Ruselle
Following basic rules of hygiene at home can keep your food safe from contamination by organisms on your hands and body thereby preventing illness and upset stomachs.
In the year 2000, the US National Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that 76 million people are sickened, 325,000 are hospitalized, and 5,000 die each year in the US from food poisoning. In the UK 1 in 10 people may suffer from foodborne illnesses. These are pretty alarming figures and the figures for Australia and many other countries are equally as alarming and it seems that they are rising every year.
Often the poisoning is mild so the toxic reaction is not as strong. Upset stomach, cramps, nausea or vomiting, fever, chills, headaches and other common ailments are often mistaken as viral or flu symptoms.
Statistics show that although some cases of food poisoning can be caused by manufactured foods, the instances are very small in reality - approximately 3% which leaves restaurant and home prepared meals as the cause. Tightening of health laws in the professional food industry is helping to lower the numbers in restaurants. Reporting of suspicious activities or health issues in restaurants and food outlets will help even further, but only due to educating ourselves on good health practices and being diligent in carrying them out can we lower the cases of food poisoning in homes. We seriously need to understand that we may be poisoning our families. Many babies and children are suffering from food poisoning regularly and some even die from it.
What a lot of people may not realize is that the incubation of the bacteria can be from 1 day to several weeks so it's difficult for us as individuals to remember and attribute the side effects to a particular meal. Perhaps eliminating these unwanted intestinal pests will help us to strengthen our immune systems so that we can fight other illnesses more effectively.
Here is a list of things that you can and should do to help eliminate food poisoning in your home.
Clean - Wash hands, all utensils, and surfaces with hot soapy water before and after food preparation, especially after preparing meat, poultry, eggs, or seafood. Make sure that all utensils including chopping boards and knives are thoroughly washed between preparing different foods. It's preferable to have separate chopping boards for raw and cooked foods. Clean all fruit and vegetables thoroughly. Dirt can contain harmful bacteria and of course pesticides and insects will be removed with washing.
Separate - Keep raw meat, eggs, poultry, or seafood and their juices away from ready-to-eat foods such as salads and bread. Never place cooked food on an unwashed plate that previously held raw meat, poultry, eggs, or seafood.
Cook - Check to make sure that food is cooked to the correct safe temperature with a food thermometer. You're aiming at cooking it enough to destroy any harmful bacteria. Cook meat thoroughly. Cook eggs until both yolk and white are firm.
Chill - Refrigerate or freeze perishables, prepared food, and leftovers within two hours. Make sure that the refrigerator temperature is set no higher than 40 Fahrenheit and the freezer temperature is at zero degrees Fahrenheit.
If you'd like more detailed info on the different causes of food poisoning, here's a link to the US Food and Drug administration on Diseases and the organisms that cause them.