Food-Borne Illnesses (Food Poisoning)

Food-Borne Illnesses

A food-borne illness, as the name indicates, is caused by eating contaminated food. Some people call it food poisoning. Usually, you have to eat food that is contaminated with large amounts of certain germs, generally bacteria but also viruses or parasites. Food poisoning is likely one of the most common causes of acute illness.

Bacteria that commonly cause food-borne illnesses are Salmonella, Staphylococcus, Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, and Shigella. Clostridium botulinum (botulism), and Listeria cause the most serious food-borne illnesses and may lead to death.

Some of these bacteria form toxins that cause illness by intoxication, not infection. Toxins can form either in food or after being ingested inside the body. The type of toxin and the amount taken in determine how sick you will be. Bacteria that form toxins usually have a dormant, spore stage. Spores are common in soil and are harmless—until the right conditions enable them to enter the reproductive stage and form toxins. Many spores can survive cooking heat, freezing, drying, and even boiling.

The cause of food-borne illness is most often improper handling of food by growers, distributors, restaurants, or consumers. This includes inadequately inspecting food before distribution, poor sanitation in packing plants, storing food at the wrong temperature, unclean food handlers, cooking at too low a temperature to kill bacteria, or letting cooked food sit at room temperature too long.

Food-borne illness takes a huge toll on both our personal and economic health in medical care, lost wages, health investigations, lost business, and legal action. If a certain restaurant is implicated in an outbreak of food-borne illness, the bad publicity can destroy its business.

Food-borne illness is a growing problem. A study issued in October 1991 established that every year as many as 30 million Americans become sick with food-borne illness, many of whom die as a result. The CDC receives reports numbering between 12,000 and 30,000 cases of food-borne illness annually. However, most cases and outbreaks of food-borne illness are not recognized or reported.

How Do You Know If You Have It?

You may have been sick from food poisoning without realizing it, thinking you had a stomach flu.” From a few hours to several days after eating the food, you will suffer from one or more of these symptoms: diarrhea that may be bloody, nausea and vomit-ing, abdominal cramps, and low fever.

How Sick Will You Be?

Healthy adults feel better in less than a week. Young children, the elderly, and others with weakened immune systems can become seriously ill or die from a food-borne infection.

How Do You Prevent It?

The water and food supplies of North America are, for the most part, extremely safe. However, bacteria, viruses, and worms are wily creatures and, without constant vigilance, they will find ways to get into what we eat and drink. Cleanliness, care, and common sense when buying, storing, and preparing your food is the three-pronged strategy I recommend to ensure that the food you serve in your home is a source of sustenance and enjoyment and not a source of illness. Everyone should follow these rules wherever food is served—at home, in restaurants and school cafeterias, on picnics, and at large parties. As the use of these measures increases, the risk of illness decreases. You need to learn general preventive measures to protect yourself against food-borne illness.

If you have any questions about food safety, call the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Meat and Poultry Hotline in Washington, D.C., at (800) 535-4555 from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Eastern time weekdays.

Buying Food

■ Always make food shopping your last stop. Take food straight home and never leave it in a hot car.
■ Always read the labels and pay attention to the “use by” dates. If the label says to keep the food refrigerated, then keep it refrigerated.
■ Don’t buy food in poor condition. Refrigerated food should feel cold, frozen food should be frozen solid.
■ Never buy cans with dents, bulging lids, or cracks. Don’t buy products that look like they may have been tampered with or opened by a customer.
■ Don’t buy unpackaged products at the deli counter if they are in contact with other unpackaged raw or cooked products.

Storing Uncooked Food

■ Separate raw and cooked foods. Don’t let juices from raw meat and poultry come in contact with other foods, surfaces, utensils, or serving plates.
■ Put a plate under raw meat in your refrigerator to keep juices from dripping onto other foods. Raw juices may contain bacteria.
■ Keep your refrigerator at 40°F (4.5 °C) or lower—keep it as cold as you can without freezing your milk or lettuce.
■ Freeze any meat, poultry, or fish you won’t use within a few days.
■ Throw out if you’re in doubt. Don’t taste something to see if it’s OK. Bacteria don’t usually change the look, taste, or color of the food. Wrap discarded foods well so that pets won’t get to them.

Preparing Food

■ Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds with hot, soapy water after using the toilet or handling pets, and before preparing food.
■ Wash your hands with hot soapy water after handling raw meat or poultry. Use a fingernail brush.
■ Always wash your cutting board well with hot soapy water after cutting raw poultry or meat on it. Never prepare salads on a cutting board that is not thoroughly cleaned. (Some people say a plastic cutting board is easier to clean than a wooden one and that bacteria are able to hide in a wooden cutting board. However, new studies dispute this. Both kinds are safe if washed well between uses.)
■ Bacteria can live in sponges and dishcloths. Wash towels and dishcloths often and replace sponges every few weeks.
■ Don’t reuse marinade.
■ Don’t thaw raw meat at room temperature. Thaw in the refrigerator, in the microwave, or in cold water changed every 30 minutes. Bacteria can grow in the outer thawed layers of the food before the inside thaws.
■ Marinate foods in the refrigerator.

Cooking Food

■ Cook meat and poultry thoroughly—use a meat thermometer to check large roasted pieces of meat or poultry. Meat should be at least 160°F (71°C) and poultry 180°F(82°C).
■ Patties and chops should no longer be pink, and juices should be clear. Fish should flake easily with a fork.
■ Don’t interrupt cooking. If you want to partially cook something in the oven before putting it on the grill, do not let it sit for a long time in between.
■ Rotate foods manually in the microwave if you don’t have a carousel.
■ Don’t use slow cookers for stuffed or frozen foods.
■ Don’t cook at oven temperatures below 325°F (163°C).
■ Stuff foods immediately before cooking and remove stuffing immediately after cooking.
■ Don’t taste raw or partly cooked meat or poultry.

Serving Food

■ Serve food on clean dishes and with clean utensils—not the same ones used in food preparation.
■ Serve hot foods hot. Keep foods above 140°F (60°C). Use a meat or candy thermometer to check the temperature.
■ Reheat leftovers and processed products such as hot dogs thoroughly—to 165°F (74°C). Gravy should be brought to a rolling boil.
■ Remember that 45°F to 140°F (7.2°C to 60°C) is the danger zone—the temperature range at which most bacteria that cause food poisoning thrive.

Storing Cooked Food

■ Cooked meat or poultry must be returned to the fridge or freezer within two hours after serving, one hour in very hot weather. Break large amounts into smaller portions for rapid cooling. Use shallow, small covered containers to store food.
■ For picnics, use a cooler with a cold pack. Keep the cooler in the shade and the lid on as much as you can.
■ Keep cold party food on ice or keep platters in the refrigerator until serving time.

Some foods pose more risks than others. Here are specific instructions for these foods:

Eggs

You may have read news reports warning you of Salmonella in uncooked eggs; however, the risk of contracting Salmonella from raw or undercooked eggs is extremely small. Eggs containing Salmonella are found in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, and the chance of finding an infected egg is estimated to be 1 in 10,000. In other parts of the United States and in Canada, the risk is much less.
Despite the low risk, it is still important to take care with eggs, as with all foods, to protect infants, frail older people, and others who may be at high risk from food-borne illness. Follow these procedures:

■ Refrigerate, don’t freeze, at 40°F (4.5 °C) or lower. Eggs age quickly at room temperature.
■ Don’t wash eggs before storing or using them. Washing is already a routine part of commercial egg processing.
■ Store eggs away from strong odors and in their cases or in the special, enclosed egg storage area built into some refrigerators.
■ Rotate eggs—first in, first out.
■ Use uncooked eggs within five weeks and hard-cooked eggs within one week. Use leftover yolks and whites within four days.
■ Use other cooked eggs or egg-rich foods within three to four days.
■ Use only clean, uncracked eggs.
■ Use grade AA or A eggs.
■ Wash your hands well before and after preparing foods that contain eggs.
■ If you’re separating eggs, use an egg separator rather than passing the egg yolk back and forth from half shell to half shell. It’s possible that there may be some bacteria present in the pores of the shell that will contaminate the yolk or white during separation.
■ Cook eggs thoroughly until both the yolk and white are firm, not runny. Cook scrambled eggs until there is no visible egg liquid. People with weakened immune systems may be at some risk from eating soft-cooked eggs or foods containing lightly cooked eggs such as meringues, custards, or French toast.
■ Don’t reuse a container that has had raw egg in it until you’ve washed it well.
■ Don’t leave eggs at room temperature more than one hour, including preparation and service. If you have an Easter egg hunt, don’t leave the eggs at room temperature for more than two hours or don’t eat the eggs.
■ Add lemon juice or citric acid to the egg mixture before cooking to avoid greening of scrambled eggs during steam table holding.

Turkeys

■ Never thaw turkeys at room temperature. Keep frozen turkeys frozen until one to five days before cooking.
■ Do not thaw frozen prestuffed turkeys.
■ Buy a fresh turkey one to two days before cooking.
■ After thawing a turkey, remove its neck and giblets, wash the turkey inside and out with cold water, and drain well.
■ Wash your hands, utensils, sink, countertops, and anything else that has come into contact with the raw turkey.
■ Divide leftover turkey into small portions and store in small containers.
■ Cooked turkey can keep three to four days in the refrigerator.
■ Stuffing and gravy will keep one to two days. If reheating leftovers, make sure they are steamy hot: 165°F (74°C).

Pork

■ Cook all pork until the internal temperature reaches 171°F (77°C) or until the meat changes from pink to gray.
■ In rural areas, raw garbage should not be fed to swine, and pigs should not have access to human feces.
■ Freezing pork kills pork tapeworm and roundworm. Keep it at 5°F (-15°C) for 30 days to kill roundworm cysts, for 4 days to kill tapeworm cysts.
■ Don’t eat raw or undercooked meat or pork. Bacteria and toxins are killed by adequate cooking.

Milk and Milk Products

■ Unpasteurized milk or products made from unpasteurized milk can spread several diseases. Do not take chances. Don’t drink raw (unpasteurized) milk or eat raw cheeses.