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Food Safety for the Entire Family

Page 1

Food Safety for the Entire FamilyWhen your child feels sick to her stomach, it could be something she ate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans get sick from food 14 million times a year, and those are only the documented cases. Experts suspect that food makes people sick about 76 million times yearly. Why the discrepancy in the figures? Unless it's serious, foodborne illness tends to go largely unreported. People ignore it, chalking up their symptoms to the flu.

Everyone who eats is at risk for getting ill from consuming food contaminated with bacteria, viruses, parasites, and natural and manmade chemicals. Children, particularly infants, are even more vulnerable than adults to food contaminants because their immune systems and intestinal tracts are not as hardy. That's why it's more difficult for a youngster's body to fend off the germs that can cause health problems. Once foodborne illness takes hold, a child's system cannot battle it with the same intensity as an adult's can; kids with weak immune systems fare even worse. Diarrhea and vomiting, the most common effects of eating germ-laden food, are much harder on a little tike, in part because they lead to dehydration, which can have serious health implications. Your child's reaction to eating contaminated food depends on any number of factors, including the strength of his immune system, the health of his intestinal tract, the contaminant and its potency, and how much of the offending food he ate.

Home Food Safety: It's in Your Hands
Most foodborne illness can be chalked up to bacteria found in animal foods. Viruses can be equally troublesome. They are simple organisms that require only food, moisture, and warmth to thrive to the point of wreaking havoc on your health. When bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus (a.k.a. staph), or the Hepatitis A virus hitch a ride in foods held between 40°F and 140°F, these potential troublemakers have all that they need to make you miserable.

Parasites are less common intruders, but they still pose a health threat. They can be found in raw meat and seafood. As a kid, you may remember your parents cooking your pork chops well done. They were trying to avoid trichinosis, a foodborne illness caused by parasites in pork. Trichinosis is much less common today due to diligent industry efforts to curb it.

Outbreaks of illness caused by germs such as Salmonella and E. coli in foods including undercooked and raw poultry, eggs, and beef gamer publicity, but lower profile organisms cause problems, too. For instance, strains of Campylobacter found in undercooked meat and poultry and in unpasteurized milk are the most common cause of diarrhea.

Food is an easy mark for germs, since it contains the prime conditions for growth: food, water, and warmth. Problem is, you cannot see, taste, or smell the elements of food bound to make you sick. Since no food is completely sterile, you should always treat it carefully when handling it and storing it. Take the Food Safety Quiz to see how much you know, and then read on to learn how to keep food safe at home.

Shop Smart
Food should be in good condition before you toss it into your shopping cart. Check the expiration dates of dairy products, meat, and poultry. Refrigerated food should be cold to the touch, and frozen food should be rock-solid hard. Avoid canned goods with dents, cracks, or bulging lids—they indicate a serious food poisoning threat. Stay away from meat and poultry products with punctured plastic wrapping. After making a selection from the meat case, place it in a clear plastic bag. This will prevent any leakage of juices from the animal product onto other foods in your shopping cart. As for baby food, check to see that the safety button in the middle of the lid is down and that the jar is properly sealed. Even so, if the lid doesn't make a popping sound when opened at home, discard it immediately. Leave unpasteurized milk and juice on supermarket shelves, or at farm stands.

Bring It on Home
Shop last for cold foods such as meat and milk. Then go directly home and put them away. Never leave items such as milk, eggs, and poultry to sit in your car or in the trunk, which tends to be warmer than the rest of the car. If you must, store perishables in a cooler immediately after making your purchases. Take care, even when it's cold outside. Chances are, your car's interior registers well above the 40°F mark.

Wash Up
Frequent hand washing could cut by half the rate of foodborne illness and significantly reduce cases of cold and flu. Use warm water to lather up and wash carefully, especially before preparing food for yourself or your family. Always wash your hands after changing a diaper, visiting the bathroom, and handling pets. When working with raw animal foods such as chicken and seafood, wash your hands thoroughly before touching any other food, utensil, or any other surface, and before touching your child. Researchers at the University of Arizona have found that people had the most germs on their hands after making a meal, possibly because they failed to wash their hands after handling raw animal foods.

Be diligent with your youngster, too. Adults should stress the importance of washing up after every trip to the bathroom, before eating meals and snacks, and before helping you prepare food. Teach kids to wash for as long as it takes to sing the "Happy Birthday" song twice (about twenty seconds) while lathering up with warm soapy water. That's how long it takes to destroy most of the germs on your hands, Dry hands with disposable towels or a clean cloth, or air dry completely.

Page 2Is Food the Culprit?
Most types of food poisoning manifest themselves in the intestinal tract and are often characterized by vomiting and diarrhea. The sudden onset of intestinal problems without a cold, runny nose, cough, or body aches and pains should be enough to distinguish foodborne illness from the flu. In fact, it typically takes a day or so to develop the flu symptoms of fatigue and all-over achiness; this general malaise is usually accompanied by nasal or chest congestion, runny nose, cough, and fever. Depending on the germ, the symptoms of foodborne illness can be apparent in as little as thirty minutes.

When trying to determine if food is to blame when your child falls ill, it may be tough to get to the bottom of the situation, however. Youngsters don't always have the words to describe their discomfort or tell you what is going on in their bodies. It's even worse when trying to figure out how your infant is faring. Don't wait for a definitive answer. Call your doctor to discuss your child's situation. Make haste when children have any amount of bloody diarrhea, because it's a sign that your child may have consumed the potentially deadly Escherichia coli (E. Coli) 0157:H7. The simultaneous symptoms of stiff neck, headache, and fever should be reported immediately, too. If your youngster vomits or has diarrhea two or more times daily for twenty-four to forty-eight hours, he may need to see his pediatrician, given his risk for dehydration and its complications.

Curb Cross-Contamination
You may be in for trouble when juices from raw meat, poultry, or seafood, or germs from unclean objects such as utensils, touch cooked or ready-to-eat foods. Separate raw meats and ready-to-eat foods such as salad greens. Make it easier to avoid cross-contamination by using separate plates for holding raw meat, poultry, and seafood and another for the cooked versions. When possible, designate separate cutting boards for raw animal products and for ready-to-eat foods such as bread and salad greens. Use different-colored boards so that you won't mix them up. Discard old cutting boards worn with cracks, crevices, and excessive knife scars because germs can thrive there.

Turn Up the Heat
Cooking destroys harmful bacteria, but only when it's done right. Animal products are particularly prone to foodborne illness, but applying the right temperature typically fends off troublesome germs. With the exception of eggs and fish, experts say that you cannot tell whether animal products are properly cooked by their appearance. Invest in a meat thermometer to be sure. Here's what to strive for, temperature-wise.

• Whole poultry: 180°F
• Poultry breast and well-done meats: 170°F
• Stuffing, ground poultry, reheated leftovers: 165°F
• Medium meats, pork, and ground meats such as beef: 145°F
• Medium-rare beefsteaks, roasts, veal, lamb: 145°F
• Egg dishes: 160°F. Cook egg yolks and whites until both are firm.
• Fish: Cook until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily with a fork.

Cool It
With all the outdoor partying going on, it's no surprise that a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites the summer months as a time when foodborne illness caused by bacteria is at its peak. It doesn't have to be that way. To avoid getting sick from food, never leave it sitting out for more than two hours at room temperature, which is about 70°F. When the mercury climbs higher, food quality deteriorates even faster. That's why you should cool food after just one hour on the table. It's one thing to rely on your refrigerator and freezer for cooling, but you must make sure your refrigerator thermometer registers 40°F or below and that your freezer operates at 0°F or lower. If the units are any warmer than that, bacterial growth can occur. Also, don't pack your refrigerator or freezer with too much food. Cold air needs room to circulate in order to effectively squelch germ reproduction.

Mind the Marinating
When marinating meat, seafood, or poultry, use a covered plastic container and place it in the refrigerator. Marinade ingredients are acidic and cause a chemical reaction with some metallic containers that results in the metal leaching into your food. Never reuse marinade on raw animal foods such as meat, poultry, and seafood unless it's been boiled first to destroy any germs.

Defrosting Dilemma
It's so convenient to take out a package of poultry or beef and leave it to thaw on the kitchen countertop. But it is fraught with risk. As the food warms up at room temperature, germs begin to multiply. And although you cook it thoroughly, you may not be able to kill enough of the microorganisms to prevent foodborne illness. Here's what to do instead. Thaw food in the refrigerator; wrapped in plastic, sitting in cold water in a pan (change water frequently and refrigerate as soon as food is thawed); or in the microwave oven. Always marinate foods in the refrigerator, too.

Page 3Clean Up
Squeezing out a sponge doesn't rid it of germs, it just transfers many of them to your hands. Using dirty sponges or cloths also spreads microorganisms throughout the kitchen. If you prefer sponges, change them frequently and place them daily in the dishwasher to kill the bacteria they harbor. Microwaving a sponge for thirty seconds is also lethal for germs. Use a fresh paper towel to sop up each spill of meat, poultry, and seafood juice on countertops. Warm and cold rinses don't kill germs, which is why you should launder all kitchen towels and other cloths (as well as those used to clean the bathroom) in the hot cycle of your washing machine. For certain germ death, add bleach to the wash.

Don't Eat That! Foods Youngsters and Pregnant Women Should Avoid
Raw or undercooked animal foods, including eggs. They are the worst offenders as far as foodborne illness goes as they harbor a host of germs. Don't let your kids lick the batter bowl. The raw eggs used to make cakes, cookies, and brownies are risky for them and for you. Commercially prepared cookie dough is not hazardous, however. Neither are frozen desserts flavored with cookie dough or commercial products such as eggnog: they are produced with pasteurized eggs.

Soft cheeses. The likes of Brie, Camembert, feta, and blue-veined varieties of cheese may contain Listeria monocytogenes.

Unpasteurized juice and milk. Pasteurization kills nearly all the germs in juice and milk. It may seem more natural to serve unpasteurized juices or raw milk, but it is especially dangerous to feed them to a child or drink them when you're expecting. Unpasteurized juices must carry a warning label that states the dangers they pose, particularly to children, so read the package before purchasing or pouring.

Honey. Children under one year of age must avoid honey because of the threat of botulism.

Alfalfa sprouts. Animal foods are the usual vehicle for strains of the salmonella bacteria, but produce can be culpable, too. Alfalfa sprouts have caused outbreaks of salmonella poisoning affecting an estimated twenty thousand North Americans. Experts say that conditions are ripe for salmonella contamination in alfalfa sprouts given the circumstances of how the seeds are handled and then sprouted. And since consumers rarely cook or wash alfalfa sprouts, the chances of illness from eating them runs high. That's why alfalfa sprouts are frowned upon for people at the greatest risk for foodborne illness, including children and pregnant women.

Problems with Plastics
Plastic is such a part of our lifestyle that you probably don't give it too much thought. You buy plastic-wrapped foods, store food in plastic, and even use it in the microwave. Plastics have pitfalls, however.

Plasticizers, used to make plastics pliable, are problematic because they can leach from wraps and bags into foods, including high-fat fare such as processed meats. The problem is that plastic degrades, causing chemicals to get into your food. Plastic's demise is accelerated by light and by heat; fattier and acidic foods absorb more plasticizers than other fare.

Some experts say that the plasticizer di-(2-ethylhexyle) adipate (DEHA), used in certain clingy plastic wraps designed for commercial use, is an endocrine disrupter. Endocrine disrupters are chemicals that can interfere with your child's development. Others, including the PDA and the EPA, say that studies have not confirmed that DEHA is an endocrine disrupter. While there's little scientific evidence to fear plastic, there's no reason why you can't handle it more safely. Here's how to avoid problems.

• Rewrap high-fat foods, including cold cuts, at home. Before eating, slice off a thin sliver where the commercial wrap came into contact with the food.
• Microwave foods in glass such as Corningware, or stick with brand names for microwavable plastics, including Tupperware and Rubbermaid.
• If you must use plastic wrap, purchase brands that specify on the label that they are made from polyethylene (such as Glad Wrap), because they don't contain DEHA. Leave a gap between food and any type of plastic wrap whenever possible.
• Store foods in glass, never in styrofoam.
• Never microwave food in leftover plastic containers such as cottage cheese or margarine tubs, and throw out old plastic containers that show signs of wear.
• Cover food with a paper towel instead of with plastic wrap when heating in the microwave.

Consumers Union tested baby bottles made with polycarbonate, a clear, hard plastic material. When they filled them with infant formula and heated up the bottles, they found that bisphenol-A, a potential endocrine disrupter, leached into the formula. You could get around potential problems with plastic by using glass bottles. Another way to protect your baby: avoid clear, shiny plastic baby bottles and serve infant formula or breast milk in less shiny, opaque bottles, which are often colored.