Food and Safety

Food and Safety - A Small Price to Pay to Keep Salmonella Away

It's not just cars and laptop batteries that get recalled anymore. They are doing eggs and even fresh produce that get tainted with horrible food poisoning agents like salmonella and E. coli these days. Most people don't really pay much attention to where they buy their meat and produce; the supermarket standards that they've grown used to usually do just fine. It is just the people who get unlucky and come by an infection that quickly learn how food and safety can completely depend on where they buy from.

Sellers at any farmer's market usually know when to expect the most demand for their wares - it is usually right after a major outbreak of something in the recall. Consumers quickly wised up that there is something about where they buy their food from that can affect their health, and come flocking to the places that sell organic produce. The wave usually lasts as long as a couple of months, before people get tired of paying three times more for organic and locally grown stuff, and go back to the supermarket. It's not just the expense either; caring about food safety requires that you take the time to use hydrogen peroxide, antibacterial soap, meat thermometers and all that. It's often more than anyone can take. Except of course for people who've actually experienced how terrible and E. coli infection can feel.

How many people actually experience it each year? It's not a small number - about 10% of the country lands in hospital after a food infection of some kind each year. And it can affect children more than most because of their weaker immune systems. And even once people do get better after infection, the lingering effects on their kidneys and other vital organs remain for life. The problem is so serious and so expensive for the country, that Congress is coming out with a food and safety bill soon that allow the government to order recalls, and to enforce strict standards. Until the government comes through, here are some of the best practices you can adopt to protect yourself.

Giving up eggs altogether would be the safest - no soft boiled eggs or cookie dough anymore. But if upu can'tbe that way, try buying pasteurized eggs They're the ones that have a big red P. printed on the box. Of course they cost a couple dollars more a dozen than regular eggs, but that's small price to pay to keep salmonella away.

There is a popular idea there that vegetarian food safety goes hand-in-hand. While that might be true to a certain extent, you do remember the time when Taco Bell got into trouble for food poisoning in its latest, don't you? Never buy bagged lettuce - and be sure to wash it thoroughly after you throw away the outer leaves. A $10 salad spinners should make things easier. Make sure that you use different cutting boards for meets and vegetables. At the end of the day, be sure to soak your boards in value to bleach. Leftovers are always to be dealt with very carefully. Nothing over a couple of days old should never be fit for consumption. Elderly people especially are a little prone to making little savings with such measures. You could make sure this never happens to any elderly person you know.