photo by edwardoneill

Actually there are no aphorosims in this post: witty sayings are scarce in the food safety realm. It’s mostly fear campaigns about the “Temperature Danger Zone” (TDZ) followed by a simple mantra: Clean. Separate. Cook. Chill.

It may be tempting to dismiss food safety concerns as symptoms of a ‘sterilized’ society, guilty of conflating purity with Purell. Yet contracting a foodborne illness will teach you new things about your body–revelations you will wish had been left uncorked. These misadventures can make for a good story, but they can also be fatal, especially for the young, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised.

As consumers, some of the contaminated foods that we encounter are beyond our control, damaged at some point in a nebulous food system–via import, in processing, through polluted waterways and agricultural runoff etc. In late July, the House of Representatives passed the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009 . If passed by the Senate and signed by the President, the legislation would expand the Food and Drug Administration’s inspection authority, enhance trace-back, and better protect the food supply for consumers. Whether H.S 2749 passes or not, we remain responsible for self-regulation.

Most cases of foodborne illness stem from faulty practices in food service operations and at home. There are ways to minimize risks beyond those to which we willingly subject ourselves-like sushi, rare meat, and most anything that inspires disclaimers on restaurant menus.

In addition to ‘Clean. Separate. Cook. Chill. ‘, there are several general rules to follow. Some are obvious. Wash your produce, even if it’s organic. What do you think ‘natural fertilizer’ means? Throw away things that smell, turn colors, grow fuzz. Avoid bulging cans. Don’t serve a cooked bird on the same platter that held it raw. Trust that tofu can go bad.

Others are more subtle. Keep an eye out for cracks in mugs and for grooves hacked into cutting boards, wooden or plastic (ugh). These nicks are hard to clean well, leaving a moist hiding den for bacteria. While lemon juice and salt may help remove food smells from cutting boards, it will not sterilize surfaces. Wash dishtowels regularly, as in, before they start to smell.

Know that bacteria are most frequently implemented in foodborne illness, as opposed to viruses or fungi, and that bacteria love pH above 4.5, protein and nutrients, moisture, and temperatures between 40 and 140 F (el Danger Zone). The pH advice is hard to follow at home. I don’t know anyone that stores litmus strips next to the toothpicks and rubber bands. Temperature and moisture, however, are important factors and easy to note.

How long is too long for leftovers in the fridge? You have a three to four day window before tossing or freezing the last of the takeout. Only reheat what you plan to eat in a sitting.

If I defrost meat in the refrigerator, do I have to cook it as soon as it thaws?
Confession: I made this question up, because I wanted the answer. If you defrost in the refrigerator, you have the most options. According to the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Services, fridge thawed ground meat and poultry can remain thawed but uncooked for 1-2 days and red meat cuts can go for 3-5 days. If needed, fridge-thawed foods can be returned to the freezer without cooking, but food texture suffers.  If you had the planning foresight to thaw your meat, you probably have the intention to cook it in time.

By contrast, if you defrost in the microwave, you should use the food right away. Cold water thawing is a mixed bag–if the package leaks, meat tissue can absorb liquid and get watery. You also have to cook it right away.

Lastly, don’t leave foods on the counter to thaw. Just don’t.

I made soup and it’s too big to fit in the fridge. Can I leave it out overnight? Won’t I just boil off any germs tomorrow when I reheat it? The fridge is your friend. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, improper cooling of large amounts of food is the leading cause of foodborne illness.

A vat of soup easily doubles as a romantic hot tub, overrun by bacterial lovers (or I guess self-lovers, given their mechanism for reproduction). You want to get that pot in the fridge within two hours of serving. If there is a lot of soup left, divide it among smaller, shallower, containers so that the liquid can cool. The idea here is to minimize the time food spends in the Danger Zone, to minimize bacterial growth. Heat treatment can help reduce and kill bacteria, but only at a rate proportional to the number present in the food. Hot food can go in the fridge right away. Just be careful with hot glass, which can shatter in the cold.

When reheating soups and sauces, bring them to a boil before serving.

What’s that pink patch on my cheese? Can I just scrape it off? The pink patches that form on cheese are foodborne yeast. According to my Essentials of Food Science Book, it’s not known to cause illness. Go ahead: scrape and snack.

What do the different dates mean? There are lots of dates made available on the foods we buy. They are voluntary and protect retailers, manufactures, and consumers alike. These dates alert us to the relative freshness of foods and spare retailers the ilk of (some of) our complaints. “I told you so” comes printed on the box. WebMD does a nice job discussing these.

“Best if used by”: This is about quality and not safety. It portends stale saltines or slimed salad greens.

“Sell by”: Last day this food can be sold as fresh. This date is determined by the manufacturer/processor and has both safety and quality implications. Dairy may be fine for a up to week after. It’s easy to spot soured milk or chunked up yogurt but other foods are harder to assess. Eggs will be okay for a few weeks (3-5) after purchase. Poultry, fish, sausage, organ meats, and ground meats should be used or frozen within one or two days, pork and beef within three to five.

“Use by/ Expiration date”: This is a deadline for recommended use, reflecting the peak of freshness determined by the manufacturer.

Are meat thermometers for newbs?
My friend Jared is a chef. By softly laying a finger to animal flesh, he can assess the degree of doneness without making a test cut. Most of us are not Jared. While many cookbooks provide practical cooking time and temperature tables per weight of different meats, most of us have never calibrated our ovens, thereby leaving us ignorant of “true” temperature. I also tend to throw away meat packaging as soon as I start prepping, so I am left to rifle through the trash or guess at weight and time. I usually go with the latter and apparently I am in the majority–only 15% of the general population regularly uses meat thermometers. But since when is the practice of the majority a good idea? Case in point: X-Men Origins: Wolverine is one of the top grossing movies of 2009.

Chicken and pork really should be cooked to a minimum temperature, 165 F for chicken, 150 for pork, making a case for a thermometer–especially when you have reason to distrust your equipment and/or yourself. These temperatures reflect the temperature at which the food should be consumed. Trichinosis, that pig-loving roundworm, dies around 140F, but most experts and recipes recommend 150, given the varying accuracy of meat thermometers. Since a pork roast will continue to cook after removing from the oven, you’ll see many recipes suggesting taking pork out from the oven once a thermometer inserted into the center registers 145 F.

We’ve had food on the roof all day at our cook out and I’m not sure what to do with the leftover potato salad. My girlfriend made it. It seems important that I eat it. Food left outside where it is 90 ºF or above should be eaten or refrigerated within 1 hour of cooking- or discarded. Unless your rooftop cookout is in winter and it’s below 40, the two hour rule still applies. Sorry, the salad days are over. I’d hate for your lady to be jealous of the time you’re spending with the porcelain goddess.

Lastly, if you do get sick, report it to your state health department. Given the incubation period for many bacteria and viruses, and the variety of foods we consume throughout a day, it can be difficult to match one’s illness with its culprit. The foodborne illness databases help epidemiologists track outbreaks.

Nothing like germ talk to whet my appetite. I’m off to lunch. Bon Appetit!

*****

ADDENDUM/ A BEEF RELATED ASIDE:

A single hamburger may contain meat from hundreds of animals. It’s a gross reality. I had the opportunity to speak with a Cargill representative following the large ground beef recall in 2007 (and now, another in August 2009–this time an antibiotic resident salmonella). I was hoping he’d say something along the lines of ‘ we need to understand where this came from and how we can prevent future outbreaks ’. Instead, he explained that the outbreaks demonstrated that consumers could not be trusted to follow on-the-package cooking instructions. The same thinking was applied by ConAgra following the salmonella pot pie outbreaks. I personally share Scott’s view that a burger is meant to be, at most, medium rare. If you like bloody meat, it helps to know your meat. Improve traceability and make friends; butchers can grind meat for you on site, so you know it comes from one animal and is just meat]