Re: Re: The new picky eater

[Guest guest]

If you're worried about food safety at a potluck, breaking out your

handy-dandy food testing kit is not the answer. The answer is SKIP

THAT ITEM. What a freak.

>

> > Most of the guests at a Cambridge Ont. Christmass party this month

> > arrived bearing baked goods and holiday cheer.

> >

> > brought her digital meat thermometer, a gadget she

> uses to

> > assess whether the treats prepared at the holiday potluck were

> > thoroughly cooked.

> Ms does not regard her behaviour as extreme, or

> > even unusual, but a necessary step in the constant battle against

> > food-borne illness.

>

[Guest guest]

Belinda,

I feel the same way! Most of my friends have hand sanitizer in every

room and I can't even lean against a kitchen counter anymore, for fear

of bleaching my shirt out! In trying to prevent illness, they actually

encourage it. My Grandmother used to say, " every kid should eat a

spoonful of dirt " . Their kids seem to always have some sort of allergy

or sickness, while mine are rarely ill. Soap and water is simple and

effective.

labelleacres wrote:

>

> The more I read the more I know I was born 100 years too late. We

> leave food on the table to cool. Bleach hasn't seen the inside of my

> kitchen. We don't sanitize, we wash with soap and water. I pop bits of

> raw burger into my mouth while cooking our burgers or mixing meatloaf.

> The only time we get sick from food is when we eat out...

>

> Belinda

>

> >

> > Food safety connoisseurs are using a range of gadgets to monitor what

> > they consume, how it's prepared, and how it's stored

> >

> > Most of the guests at a Cambridge Ont. Christmass party this month

> > arrived bearing baked goods and holiday cheer.

> >

> > brought her digital meat thermometer, a gadget she uses to

> > assess whether the treats prepared at the holiday potluck were

> > thoroughly cooked.

> >

> > As the executive director of the Canadian Partnership for Consumer Food

> > Safety Education, Ms does not regard her behaviour as extreme, or

> > even unusual, but a necessary step in the constant battle against

> > food-borne illness.

> >

> > " I can't afford to get food poisoning, " she said last week.

> > I wash my hands and brush my teeth because I know that's the right

> > thing to do. And usually a meat thermometer is part of a healthy

> > lifestyle. "

> >

> > More people are following the lead of Ms and other food safety

> > experts, engaging in heightened surveillance of the food they eat, how

> > it has been prepared and where it has been stored.

> >

> > Today's food-safety connoisseurs do not count calories, but the

> > number of days leftovers have been in the `fridge, the temperature

> > of a steak's core, and the number of hands they imagine may have

> > handled a piece of fruit en route to their dinner plate.

> >

> > And they are aided by a range of new gadgets that allow them to treat

> > their kitchen like culinary laboratories under bacteria lockdowns.

> >

> > A product called Vacu-seal sucks the air out of plastic bags, leaving

> > leftovers airtight so they can be frozen for future use. A gizmo called

> > the SensorFreshQ Freshness Meter promises to measure the bacterial

> > population of a piece of food, giving its user a reading of

> > " fresh! " , " still fresh! (eat soon), " or " freshness

> > not assured " .

> >

> > And a small circular timer called 'DaysAgo' tracks how long food has

> > been in your refrigerator or cupboard. Attached with magnets suction

> > cups and elastic bands, the timer is started when a product has been

> > opened for the first time, its digital screen recording how many hours

> > and days it has been since the food was first used. Sold in packs of two

> > for $10 (US) DaysAgo was named by Good Housekeeping as one of the best

> > household products of 2007.

> >

> > Kathleen Whitehurst, one of the creators of DaysAgo, believes the

> > product has taken off because people have become more conscientious

> > about what they are eating and associate fresh food with health food.

> >

> > " It's got to do with health and that more people are buying

> > organic food, things that do spoil quicker, " she said.

> > " They're not buying stuff that has a lot of preservatives in

> > it. "

> >

> > But is it really dangerous to eat things that have been in the

> > refrigerator for a few days? Once a food product is opened it is usually

> > good for just two days, according to Ms , whose organization posts

> > recommended storage periods on its website < canfightbac.org > She

> > encourages consumers to keep their refrigerators set below 4 degrees

> > Celsius / ~ 40 degrees Fahrenheit to slow the growth of bacteria, and

> > freeze any food they will not eat right away.

> >

> > " It's all about managing risk, managing the things they can

> > control, and that's one thing that they have some control over, "

> > she said.

> >

> > Ms believes a degree of neurosis is necessary to prevent

> > food-borne illness, which can cause nausea, stomach cramps, vomiting and

> > diarrhea, and in the case of listeria and E Coli, can even produce

> > kidney failure and death. She also challenges the idea that common sense

> > is enough for people to know when something has gone off.

> >

> > " You can't tell if it's spoiled, you can't see bacteria

> > and you can't smell it. " she said. " We tell people, `if

> > in doubt, throw it out' … Don't take the risk. "

> >

> > Ms Whitehurst worries that this kind of advice, coupled with her

> > product's monitoring of people's leftovers, could encourage

> > wasteful behaviour, but says DaysAgo is not meant as an arbiter of food

> > safety.

> >

> > " It's just for people to make their own judgments, " she

> > said. " I'm not suggesting that people get so consumed by it that

> > they have 50 DaysAgo in their refrigerator.

> >

> > , the Canadian-born scientific director of the

> > International Food Safety Network at Kansas State University * , said

> > many people confuse the issues of food safety and food freshness.

> >

> > " There are lots of things that are yucky but that won't kill

> > you, " he said. " And there are lots of things that will kill you

> > and you can't tell. "

> >

> > In an effort to protect themselves, Dr said, some people make

> > choices that have little to do with preventing illness - such as buying

> > organic produce - while neglecting behaviours that can truly protect

> > them, such as the use of food thermometers and the proper storage of

> > food.

> >

> > " It's not simple, otherwise 11 to 13 million Canadians

> > wouldn't be getting sick every year, which they are now. " he

> > said of food safety. " But the biggest risk is not eating anything.

> > You can't be neurotic about it. "

> >

> > Siri Argell

> >

> > Toronto Grope & Flail December 26 2007

> >

> > |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

> >

> > * no friend of the Campaign for REAL MILK

> >

>

>

[Guest guest]

LOL! :)Val wrote: If you're worried about food safety at a potluck, breaking out your handy-dandy food testing kit is not the answer. The answer is SKIP THAT ITEM. What a freak.> > > Most of the guests at a Cambridge Ont. Christmass party this month> > arrived bearing baked goods and

holiday cheer.> >> > brought her digital meat thermometer, a gadget she> uses to> > assess whether the treats prepared at the holiday potluck were> > thoroughly cooked.> Ms does not regard her behaviour as extreme, or> > even unusual, but a necessary step in the constant battle against> > food-borne illness.>

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