Valentine’s Day is coming up which means that many couples are making reservations for their favorite restaurant. Although the crumbs on the floor and the occasional sticky table might add to the “homey” atmosphere of your preferred mom and pop diner, you should think twice about what the kitchen might look like if the dining area is so filthy. You like the relaxed nature of the employees that shows when they prefer to handle your food without gloves; however, you should also consider how many “relaxed” food handlers tend to disregard those “Employees Must Wash Hands” signs hanging in the restrooms. Hopefully, you are trying to help your significant other remember this special night for how much you love them, not for how upset their digestive system feels. Here are some suggestions to help make your dining experience safer and more enjoyable:

• Take note of the dining area and restrooms. If they do not meet cleanliness standards, it’s probably a good sign that the kitchen is also in need of more than just a light dusting. You might consider eating elsewhere for your own safety.
• Only eat foods that are served to you hot. If the food is served to you at a lukewarm temperature, chances are that it was left sitting for too long and has allowed harmful bacteria to multiply.
• Make sure the staff does not touch your food or the tips of your silverware with their bare hands. It’s probably not a good idea to let them sample your drink either.
• Be wary of meat, eggs, oysters, or other raw foods that are undercooked.
• Wash your hands properly before and after eating.

And what about the doggie bag? If you and your loved one know that you will not be back home to refrigerate your leftovers within the next two hours, leave your food remains behind (even if it makes starving children in other countries cry.) If your leftovers do make it home, make sure that you reheat the goods to at least 165 degrees F. With leftovers, always keep the “Temperature Danger Zone” in mind–the range of temperature that bacteria thrives in, usually falling between 40 and 140 degrees F. Make sure to keep your food above or below this range.

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

–Madelyn Tucker

Sources: NSF.org, FDA.gov

Red lobster is a favorite of many, but often overlooked as a meal during Santa’s favorite season. Consider switching it up a bit and providing a delicious meal that matches the colors of the season.

Purchase the lobster live at any local seafood restaurant or fish monger. Check to see that the lobster is active when it is picked up to ensure that it is relatively fresh and healthy. As soon as a lobster dies, the enzymes from its digestive system break its body down, so it is best to keep the lobster alive until cooking it. For those concerned about hurting the lobster, it has been discovered that lobsters show less signs of trauma if they are numbed by being put in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes prior to cooking.

The nice thing about lobster is that it is relatively easy to cook. A video of how to cook a lobster can be found here. When cooking lobster, the safety precautions should be familiar since they are similar to handling other meats. As usual, keep the kitchen free of any cross contamination by using a bleach water mix to sanitize anything that raw meat has touched. The internal temperature of the meat should reach 145ºF, and the flesh should be cooked until it looks “pearly and opaque,” according to the FDA. Never eat the meat raw. Follow these tips to avoid getting the food borne illness listeriosis, caused by Listeria monocytogenes (a strain of bacteria frequently found in seafood that initiates around 1,850 illnesses annually).

Pregnant women who may be attending the lobster dinner can be assured that, according to the FDA, it is safe for them to eat up to 12 ounces per week of different types of seafood, including lobster. But be sure that they have consulted their doctors before eating lobster, though, just to be safe.

Splurging, overeating and indulging are unhealthy but enjoyable customs during the holidays. One needn’t be as concerned about the fat content of a lobster meal, however, because it is lower in fat per ounce than beef and pork. If lobster is not in the budget (especially since it is out of season in the winter), save these tips for later enjoyment! However, if serving lobster this holiday season is possible, it will tickle the fancy of those with whom you share the festivities.

–Julia Simmons, M.Ed., Home Economist

Sources: homecooking.about.com, FDA.gov, whatscookingamerica.net, idph.state.il.us

If your goal is to take the breath away of your holiday dinner guests and leave them itching and gagging, you don’t need to read this article. Shortness of breath, itching, dizziness, and stomach discomfort, swelling and nausea are signs of food allergies. For some guests, avoiding allergic reactions can be as critical as life and death. To avoid these problems consider calling your guests and taking into consideration the food allergies of any expected guests. Organize a menu that accommodates all guests.

A cook who has given himself time to ascertain the needs of his guests gives himself extra time to look up special dishes within the parameters of guests’ palate and allergies. This might even include speaking to the companies that process meats, because though turkey may seem harmless to a gluten intolerant person, sometimes ingredients containing soy, wheat and even dairy are used to baste the turkey.

I recommend not making any dish with an item in it that a guest could have an allergic reaction to. This reduces the likelihood of an allergen lingering in the air, on serving utensils, on hands, or on the breath of anyone attending.

It might be tempting to just run to the store and buy an item that claims to be free of certain ingredients. However, according to the Mayo Clinic, food manufacturers only need to list food allergy items if they are a part of the ingredient used to make the dish. This means that there may not be any warning of possible cross contact!

If you are inviting over multiple families, it is best to do all of the cooking yourself, so that you can answer any food questions by guests and so that you can ensure their safety. This way you can also have ingredient labels handy, should anyone be curious. If certain guests insist on bringing something, you can have them bring non-food party items such as a video, decoration, poetry reading, music or packaged plastic ware.

With a little research and planning, you will help your guests avoid the problems associated with food allergies during the festivities at your home.

Here are some recipes you can use this holiday season for guests with common food allergies:

• Gluten-free Waffles for gluten allergy/intolerance (recipe calls for almond flour, eggs). 
• Shortbread Cookies for gluten allergy/intolerance, dairy allergy, nut allergy (recipe calls for eggs)
• Assorted allergen-free recipes

–Julia Simmons, M.Ed., Home Economist

Sources: allergicchild.com, MSN.com, foodallergies.about.com, mayoclinic.com,

It’s Christmas and you want to spend your precious days off in your pajamas wrapping presents and making cookies.  Nobody blames you for that!  But if you are the kind of person whose cookie dough never makes it to the oven because you opt for savoring every morsel raw rather than cooked, there might be a problem.  Then again, there might not.

When it comes to eating raw cookie dough, there seems to be a debate in the food safety world.  Some argue that you should not, under any circumstances, eat food that contains raw eggs because there is always a risk of Salmonella enteritidis, a strain of bacteria that causes foodborne illness which can sometimes become serious, especially for children, pregnant women, people with chronic illnesses, and the elderly who are highly susceptible because of their impairment of immune responses.

Others, however, think that because the chances of coming across an egg contaminated with Salmonella is so rare, you should be able to consume foods made with raw eggs freely, even if you are taking a chance.  To give you an idea of the risk you are taking, statistics show that “only 1 of every 20,000 eggs might contain the bacteria. So, the likelihood that an egg might contain [Salmonella] is extremely small – 0.005% (five one-thousandths of one percent).  At this rate, if you’re an average consumer, you might encounter a contaminated egg once every 84 years.”  And even if you do encounter an infected egg, you still might not even become sick.

So what does this mean?  Simply, it means make your choice.  If you are worried about Salmonella, simply refrigerate your eggs, cook them thoroughly when you use them, and don’t eat them raw.  If you’re up for the risk, eat away.  Just don’t blame me when you have a run-in with Salmonella enteritidis during your vacation—or in the next 84 years.

–Aubrey Pontious

This is me. Well not really, but you can imagine what it would be like if it was . . .

Sources: farmprogress.com, incredibleegg.org, plosone.org

‘Tis the season to be jolly, but being jolly is not so easy when dealing with symptoms like diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting. People often mistake symptoms like these for “the stomach flu” because they don’t associate these types of symptoms with food eaten 2-3 days prior to getting sick. StateFoodSafety.com’s food safety students know, however, that there is no such thing as the stomach flu. In fact, the most likely culprit of gastrointestinal distress is foodborne illness (or “food poisoning,” if you want it to seem more exciting). Because they are often mistaken for our imagined foe, the stomach flu, very few cases of foodborne illnesses are ever reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that “each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases.”

You would think that with all of the medical advances in the world today that foodborne illnesses wouldn’t be such a problem, but despite the attention that has been placed on food safety in recent years, Americans continue to suffer. The National Environmental Health Association states that “although significant advancements have been made over the last 20 years to educate food service workers about safe food handling practices, there has been no change since 1984 in the top 3 causes of foodborne illness: … poor personal hygiene, improper holding temperatures, [and] improper cooling procedures.”

Facts like these illustrate the necessity of learning proper food safety practices. Whether you work in the restaurant industry or cook for your family, an awareness of food safety can keep customers and family members far from the exasperations caused by foodborne illness. The National Restaurant Association predicts an increase in restaurant dining with each coming year. Because most cases of foodborne illnesses come from restaurants, food safety education is a top priority. Although making food at home is typically safer when considering food safety, it is equally important to be well-educated in food safety practices when cooking food for yourself and those you love. This is especially true for households with small children, elderly family members, pregnant women, and patients with compromised immune systems.

Foodborne illnesses, although seemingly rampant, are simple to avoid if you know the causes: poor personal hygiene, lack of cleanliness in the cooking area, improper preparation of foods, and receiving food from an unsafe source. Thwarting these sources is vital. To do so, the CDC has provided these helpful tips:

1. Clean: wash hands, cooking tools (cutting boards, knives, and utensils), fruits and vegetables before preparing food.
2. Separate: Avoid cross-contamination by keeping raw meat and poultry far from other foods.
3. Cook: When cooking meat, poultry and eggs, do so thoroughly. Ground meat should reach an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees, and eggs should be cooked until the yolk is firm.
4. Chill: Separate leftovers into shallow containers and refrigerate promptly.
5. Report: Reporting foodborne illness to your local health department is an important way to keep you and the people in your community safe from additional foodborne illnesses, especially if a restaurant is suspected of improperly handling food.

By knowing and understanding the causes of foodborne illness and following these tips for prevention, you can practice safe food handling skills and get back to being jolly!

–Aubrey Pontious

Via Certification Map – Teacher Credential & MAT@USC: Teacher Certification

Prior to this week I didn’t believe there could be a nationally-recognized day or week that needed more attention than the mid-August wonder that is Sneak Some Zucchini On To Your Neighbor’s Porch Night.  I have never been more wrong—ever.  This week, December 4-10, is National Handwashing Awareness Week 2011 and Global Handwashing Day is December 15.  Nothing has helped stay the advancement of disease and infection more than handwashing.  This is a week that needs to be brought to the forefront of all holidays (that means you, Arbor Day).

The number one thing we can do to prevent the spread of disease is regular, thorough handwashing.  As a teacher of junior high and high school-aged kids, I come in contact with just about every bug out there.  When the kids touch their desks, my desk, their papers, the door knobs, the blackboard, and everything else they seem to put their hands on, I find myself unable to avoid their germs.  Couple that with what my own young children bring home and everything they and their friends share; it’s a wonder I’m not permanently sick.  Our bodies are amazing at keeping infections and diseases at bay, but sometimes they need our help.  National Handwashing Week and StateFoodSafety.com want to give our bodies a hand (pun intended) when it comes to staying healthy.

Handwashing is simple and easy. There are only  a few steps:

1. Wet hands with warm water.
2. Apply soap.
3. Rub hands for 15-20 seconds. Remember to get under the fingernails and the backs of hands and wrists. For food handlers (and brain surgeons), washing the forearms is advisable.
4. Rinse.
5. Use a single-use paper towel or air dryer to dry.

That’s it! Nothing fancy. No fines to pay, no hoops to jump through; just easy common-sense practices. Now when should we wash our hands? The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) suggests the following:

• Before, during, and after preparing food
• Before eating food
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• After using the toilet
• After changing diapers or cleaning up a child who has used the toilet
• After blowing your nose, coughing, or sneezing
• After touching an animal or animal waste
• After touching garbage

This single, simple, and easy practice is the number one prevention tool against disease. Happy National Handwashing Week! Go out there and hug someone you love . . . then wash your hands.

-Tim Snarr

By Sirkka Huish

A food company has been banned from event catering as it was found to be responsible for a severe food poisoning outbreak that sent ten people to hospital.

Environmental Health officers have revealed the outbreak of vomiting and diarrhoea at Mount St Agnes Academy was down to the company’s catering staff being “careless with their personal hygiene”.

Investigations show that the unnamed company served ham contaminated with bacteria at the school’s catered breakfast.

The Government report states that one of the company’s food handlers contaminated the ham as her/his nasal passage was infected with the bacteria. It goes on to say the bacteria was then allowed to multiply because the ham was not stored and transported at the correct temperature.

The worker has since been suspended from handling food and the food business has been banned from catering at outside events.

The food poisoning outbreak saw ten Mount St Agnes Academy staff, including principal Susan Moench, put on intravenous drip feeds and given shots to stabilise their systems at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

They all became violently sick immediately after eating a ‘thank you’ catered breakfast for staff on the last day of term in June.

Mount St Agnes Academy and the Ministry of Health have both refused to name the caterer responsible without giving their reasons for doing so.

The report ruled that it was “a serious breach” but there was no criminal intent and the company was not taking risks to try to maximise profits.

The company therefore continues to operate and has not been prosecuted as this could “irreparably damage a businesses’ reputation”.

A Ministry of Health spokeswoman said the company had also been directed to change its operations and restrict its menu. Company staff are also continuing to receive intensive food hygiene education.

The spokeswoman said they were working to protect people’s health and did not tolerate any slips in standards.

She said: “It was evident from the investigation that the food establishment staff had been careless with personal hygiene (hand to mouth contact while preparing food) and poor temperature control during the storage and transport of food to a customer. The food handler in question was a symptom less carrier of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria.”

She added: “The food handling practices have been closely scrutinised by the Department, improvements have been required and made.

“The establishment has been compliant and worked to make the required improvements on several fronts to prevent a recurrence. Prevention is the focus of this intervention.”

As previously reported by The Royal Gazette, Government’s Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit was notified of the potential food poisoning outbreak as soon as the staff fell ill on June 17. One member of staff had to be carried to the ambulance on a stretcher as he was in too much pain to walk.

All 43 breakfast attendees were interviewed and an analysis of the food served was found “a statistically significant association between consumption of ham and illness”.

The premises of the caterer was also examined and the temperature was found to be “favourable to the growth of microorganisms”.

Laboratory tests found the ham was contaminated with Staphylococcus aureus and the stool samples of most of the ill staff tested positive for the same bacteria.

Staphylococcus aureus was also found in the nasal passages of the company’s food handler. It is suggested that s/he could have handled food with bare hands, especially after touching the face or mouth, or had an exposed sore on the hands or arms.

The report summary states it was a “point-source outbreak” of Staphylococcus aureus associated with the ham prepared by the caterer.

It states: “Intoxication by Staphylococcus aureus is characterised by an abrupt onset of vomiting and/or diarrhoea with symptoms occurring within an hour to eight hours after ingestion of the toxin-contaminated food. Read Article…

Written by Sirkka Huish

Article: http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20111103/NEWS05/711039948/-1

11/2011

The one thing we all must do when we travel is eat.  I’ve had the benefit of travelling all throughout the United States from California to Florida.  I’ve also had the experience of living in Northern Peru for two years.  Just eating at an unfamiliar fast food place close to home can be daunting sometimes, let alone a street vendor in another country.  I am by no means a food or travel expert, but I’ve had successes and failures in my travels with eating and food safety.  I’d like to share some of those with you.

As I said, I lived in Peru for 2 years, and I lived the way a local would.  I ate at friends’ houses, shopped at local bodegas, and dined from street vendors like a regular Peruvian.  The most important thing I learned about food safety I learned while living there.  If it makes the locals sick, it will make you sick.  And oh boy, did I get sick.

Everything I ate was grown and prepared locally. Only once did I eat at a big chain restaurant.   I don’t think the fish burger vendor at the side of the road had a food permit.  Still, he had plenty of customers.  I was one of them, and I don’t even really care for fish.  So that’s tip number one.  If there are lots of customers, then the food is likely safe.

One time, a little boy came out of his house and offered me an orange-colored drink.  I was thirsty, so I chugged it.  I thought his mother had given it to him.  Turns out, he had gotten the glass, filled it full of water from a bucket, and put who-knows-what in it to turn it orange.  That’s another tip.  Bacteria and other biological hazards are found in un-purified water.  Make sure that any water you consume has been boiled or treated to kill those pathogens.  The next time I was offered a drink, I asked if the water had been boiled.  In my apartment in Peru, I used bottled water for my food and hygiene needs, including brushing my teeth.  After using untreated water one time to brush my teeth, I had skin peeling off the insides of my cheeks.  If you don’t protect yourself even just once, you could end up like me, sick in bed for 8 days, or maybe even worse.

In Peru I had several different cooks who prepared my food.  All were excellent cooks, and I only saw an occasional hair in my food.  If I found one, I just pulled it out and kept going.  That can be very dangerous, however.  Hair, fingernails, and other physical hazards like that can not only represent a biological hazard but can be dangerous in their own right.  Choking is one of the most common things that can happen from physical hazards present in food.  In Peru, I could expect to find a bone, beak, or claw in my chicken soup.  There weren’t any stores selling boneless chicken breasts.  It was much more rural than where I grew up.  Still, I recommend visiting Peru to anyone.  Just make sure you know what you’re putting in your mouth.

I love eating in other countries.  I appreciate not getting sick from the food adventures I take because of these rules I have learned.  Make sure there are a lot of customers and remember that what will make locals sick will affect you as well.  Those are my best tips to avoid food-borne illnesses at the table.  Eat well!

Joshua Freeman

Read full article here: www.theLondoner.ca

Pam Killeen is worried about her friend, Michael Schmidt. The Durham farmer has been on an ongoing hunger strike to try and get the Ontario government to change its thinking when it comes to the issue of raw milk.

“He sounds weak, but also very determined,” says Killeen — a Londoner who hosts a weekly radio spot on nutrition. “He says he’s willing to die for this cause. We’re all very worried.”

Schmidt says he won’t eat until he gets a meeting with Premier Dalton McGuinty to discuss the dairy laws in the province.

So along with others Killeen has been engaged in a letter-writing campaign to try and get elected officials onside with their cause.

The issue, she says, is that it’s currently illegal to sell non-pasteurized milk in Ontario. Although it is legal to drink raw milk from a cow you own, it’s a crime to bottle it and sell it. Killeen says while there used to be good cause for such laws when filthy inner city dairies churned out unsanitary milk in the early 20th century, times have changed and the quality of raw milk can be assessed based on the health of the cows it comes from.

“It was deemed a hazardous product decades ago and they (government) just won’t let go of it,” she says.

Killeen says there are at least 300 people in London who regularly consume raw milk and that interest is growing.

“I’m part of a raw milk community in London,” she says. “Most people in this city don’t know a lot about food in general. I had to get very sick before I started to research the lack of quality in our food system today.”

Killeen says she suffered from chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and multiple chemical sensitivities for more than a decade before she started changing her diet to rest on natural, nutrient-dense foods.

Moreover, she says Canada is one of the only advanced countries in the world where it’s actually illegal to sell raw milk.

“People want their freedom back,” she says. “They want to be able to walk into a store and buy raw milk if they want to.”

But health officials take a different perspective on the issue.

“It’s actually illegal to sell unpasteurized milk,” says Dave Pavletic, acting manager of the food safety program at the Middlesex-London Health Unit. “Unpastuerized milk has been implicated in several food-borne illnesses. If milk is unpasteurized there are several bacteria that can grow within the milk. Those include pathogens – harmful bacteria that can result in food poisoning.”  Read full article…

A Raw Deal?

Written by: Joshua Freeman

Taken from: http://www.thelondoner.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3354044

11/2011