According to
statistics of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases (NIDDK) there are annually about 76 million cases of reported food
poisoning in the USA of which 5 million cases are fatal.
No one is excluded from food poisoning. Therefore,
prevention is better than cure. The keys are good hygiene, proper cooking
temperatures for animal protein and the basic rule “keep hot foods hot and cold
foods cold”:
1. Keep your kitchen or food preparation area, utensils,
surfaces and your hands clean. Hands
should be washed in warm soapy water for about 20 seconds before preparing
food. Then, after handling food, especially raw meat, hands should be
thoroughly washed again.
2. Be especially careful when canning food. Follow the
instructions carefully to avoid botulism, a potentially fatal form of food
poisoning. (Botulism is a rare but serious illness caused by a bacterium called
Clostridium botulinum, which occurs in soil – National Institute of Health)
3. Thaw frozen meats – especially minced meat – in the
refrigerator and cook it as soon as it have defrosted.
4. Although many people like to eat rare meat, be careful.
Cooking meat only to rare may not kill the bacteria that can cause illness.
5. Poultry must be cooked until there is no red in the
joints and juices run clear when it is pricked.
6. Cook fish so that it flakes with a fork, and it looks
firm and opaque, not shiny.
7. It is advisable not to prepare or serve steak tartare or
other raw meat dishes. (Steak tartare is a meat dish made from
finely chopped or minced raw beef. Tartare can also be made by thinly slicing a
high grade of meat such as strip steak, marinating it in wine or other spirits,
spicing it to taste, and then chilling it – Wikipedia.) These are among
the type of foods most likely to cause food poisoning. Mincing equipment may
harbour contaminants, and minced meat offers micro-organisms on which to
multiply.
8. When dining out especially be careful of rare or
undercooked hamburgers.
9. Never depend on the sniff test to determine whether food
is off. Meat that has been contaminated with E.coli bacteria, a major cause of
food poisoning, does not necessarily smell bad. (E. coli is short for Escherichia
coli -- a bacterium (germ) that causes severe cramps and diarrhoea. E. coli is
a leading cause of bloody diarrhoea. The symptoms are worse in children and
older people, and especially in people who have another illness. E. coli
infection is more common during the summer months and in northern states –
Family Doctor.Org).
10. Do not eat raw fin fish or shell fish if you have an
immune disorder or are on chemotherapy. Although most fish you buy has been
commercially frozen and thawed, freezing does not kill bacteria. It only kills
most parasites.
Keep safe,
Engela
