salmonella – in thriver words

Container Vegetables

With continuing recalls of food due to cyclospora cayetanensis and salmonella, now’s a great time to consider container vegetables. You don’t have to be an avid gardener or have tons of space to grow vegetables. If you have a patio, porch, deck, yard, flowerbed, or sunny room in your home, you can grow a number of herbs and vegetables. Growing your own gives you the ability to make sure contaminants don’t reach your food.

arugula in water in a black speckled roaster

All you need are pots or planters, soil, and plants or seeds. Pots and planters are often available for free through community gifting groups or at low cost from thrift stores and flea markets. Soil can be purchased from dollar stores, hardware stores, big box retailers, and garden centers. Many of these will deliver to your porch allowing you to avoid carrying heavy bags up steps.

Plants or seeds may be available from gifting groups, neighbors, hardware stores, big box retailers, and garden centers. To choose the most appropriate plants for your space, time of year, and growing zone, visit a seed company website and search by container vegetables then look for recommendations for your growing zone.

If you think you’ll be limited to tomatoes, peppers, and herbs, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. You can grow those in containers, but you can also grow lettuce, kale, arugula, celery, scallions, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, green beans, baby okra, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and corn. And that’s not all, radishes, potatoes, and garlic are possible, even inside.

I gardened with my grandmother as a child and once when my children were little. In 2020 when I learned how fragile our supply chain was, I started gardening again. Currently in my garden are cucumbers, peppers, green beans, bok choi, and the end of romaine lettuce and arugula for the season. My blackberry bush is beginning to flower a second time, and I have a blueberry bush in a pot on my back porch.

That means I have a lot of a few things to consume. If you’re used to grocery store produce, you may not be familiar with seasonal substitutions. Yesterday, I used some of my abundance of cucumbers to make gluten-free muffins. They’re not that different from zucchini or kiwi muffins. I just substituted what’s in season from my garden and changed the flavor profile a little.

This is how I grew up eating so it’s not a stretch to try a new way to prepare something I might otherwise tire of. With seasonal substitutions you get the full flavor of fresh vegetables or fruit that haven’t been trucked around plus variety of taste and texture.

As some plants become prolific, you’ll understand why great-grandmothers made pickles, jam or jelly, tomato juice, cider, and canned vegetables and why many people dry or freeze food. Once you’ve invested the labor to plant, water, and weed, you don’t want anything to go to waste.

But you don’t have to go big to avoid recalled foods. A planter of lettuce may give you the salad base you’re missing. A pot of jalapeno peppers can bring the heat you miss to your nachos. Once you’ve made the initial investment, you will most likely save money as well.

I’m not happy with the lack of food safety we’re currently experiencing. But it is a reality. Growing container vegetables and fruit is a way to continue to enjoy fresh produce with an added layer of safety. Now’s a great time to try it out!

Hot Enough for You

When cooking, it’s important to know if it’s hot enough for you. I’m not talking about the weather. There’s no question there. The weather’s so hot that the patio may be as likely to burn you as the grill. I’m talking about the temperature of food.

Partially sliced cooked roast in front of roaring fire.

In order to kill bacteria that cause foodborne illness, foods need to be heated to a certain temperature. You may be familiar with the minimum safe temperature for hamburgers since some states have laws that require they be cooked well-done or 160°+ degrees. But other common cuts of meat and poultry have safe temperatures as well.

The easiest safe temperature to identify is that for eggs. When both the white and yolk are cooked firm, an egg is safe to eat. For dishes that contain raw eggs, a temperature of 160° is ideal.

Ironically, eggs are also the most common deliberately undercooked food. Right now, 7-minute, jammy eggs are popular. It’s routine to add raw eggs to protein shakes and hangover cures. And over-easy eggs have been a breakfast staple forever.

While there are some beef and fish dishes that are designed to be eaten raw, they require a higher grade of ingredients and careful handling that we may not choose to follow. For the general cooking most of us do, the following safe internal temperatures apply.

Beef: Ground 160°; Roast 145°; Steak 145°

Casseroles with raw meat or eggs: 165°

Chicken and Turkey: 165°

Eggs: Firm yolk and white

Egg Dishes: 160°

Fish: 145° or until flesh is no longer translucent

Ham: 145°; Precooked Ham USDA inspected 140°; Uninspected to 165°

Pork: Steak 145°; Roast 145°; Chops 145°; Ground 165°; Sausage 165°

Rabbit and Venison: 160°

Shrimp, Lobster, Crab, Scallops: Cook until flesh is pearly or white and opaque

Clams, Oysters, Mussels: Cook until shells open

The most accurate way to determine internal temperature is to use a meat thermometer. Many ovens include a temperature attachment for convenience. Thanksgiving turkeys often have a pop-up thermometer inserted when they’re purchased.

I have several thermometers. Only one of them is dishwasher safe. It’s the one that gets the most use for obvious reasons.

Burger on sesame bun with condiments, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and cheese in front of roaring fire.

Do all cooks use thermometers? Definitely not. Some go by time or color. And some just go by feel. Grillers often use these techniques for determining when to remove food from the grill. Moms cooking frozen food that has a caution that it must reach a certain temp are likely to rely on the recommended microwave or oven time.

Consuming undercooked food or raw eggs won’t necessarily make you sick, but it does put you at greater risk of illness from Salmonella, E-coli, Staphylococcus, Campylobacter, Listeria, and Clostridium botulinum (botulism). If you’ve ever had one of these, you’re most likely already concerned and aware.

If you grew up in a family that has lax food safety, you can reduce risk from adopting the recommended standards and making sure the food is hot enough for you.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.cce.cornell.edu/attachments/19032/Game_from_Farm_to_Table.pdf?1481131140

Wash

Wash your hands. Wash your veggies. Wash your fruit. If it’s raw and you’re not going to cook it – clean it. This morning, a new list of recalls crossed my screen. It’s a good reminder that contaminated raw fruits, vegetables, and eggs can make you sick.

Instead of a quick rinse in water, consider using some kind of veggie wash product to remove an additional layer of contamination. This may not remove every organism, but it will help minimize potential exposure to undesirable substances.

In certain circumstances I wear a mask to handle fruit. I’m most likely overdoing the safety factor, but with berries that mold quickly and citrus, I’m doubly careful.

I understand the risk of inhaling enough fungus or mold to be problematic is low, but I remember my mother having a lung lavage to rid herself of a fungus growing there. Her doctors speculated that she had inhaled the fungus from unwashed citrus fruit she peeled.

Mold, fungi, and bacteria can travel in and on food. Histamines can multiply as food ages. We rely on farmers or supermarkets to handle food properly. But we should always keep in mind that the food we purchase may not have been kept at the ideal temperature. It may also be older than we imagine. And if you grow your own vegetables, cleaning removes soil as well.

In addition to the food itself, keeping utensils, cutting boards, and countertops clean will help prevent contamination from one item to the next. I know it may seem like you’re generating more dishes to wash without much benefit, but one round of salmonella will convince you the extra effort is worth it.

My great aunts used to make sure all the dishes they handwashed were rinsed in scalding water. I use this technique in the RV where I’m trying to keep the volume of water usage low. I still scrub with soap, but I want the double protection of rinsing with boiling water.

It absolutely drives me crazy to watch TV cooks wipe their hands off on a cloth towel when handling meat and then go back to handling knives and other utensils without actually washing their hands. I understand a kitchen set with rolling cameras means handwashing creates a disruption that requires more editing but showing this also teaches new or potential cooks bad habits.

Modeling healthy habits and kitchen cleanliness for our children is beneficial. We don’t want them sending us to the hospital the first time they cook us a meal! And learning by repeated, consistent example can be effective even if we don’t reinforce the lessons verbally.

I guess that brings us to the question of the five second rule. It’s not as bad as it sounds depending – how clean are your floors, do you have pets in the house, does anyone track in agricultural waste, and what is it you dropped – these are all factors that affect the safety of the policy. If you are pet free and mop often, five seconds probably won’t hurt anything.

On the other hand, if you break an egg onto the floor and do not disinfect the spill, you may contaminate other things that touch the floor.

Each of us has our own sensibilities when it comes to cleanliness. If you’re going to eat it, clean is better as long as you’re cleaning with ingestible cleaners. And high temperature cooking will kill most bacteria.

If you don’t want to wash your hands as often, wear gloves – keeping in mind that gloves can also spread contaminants from one surface to another.

In short, keeping it clean in the kitchen means wash, wash, wash.

Please Don’t Kiss the Chickens!

Please don’t kiss the chickens! Not only do we have a new rooster in the neighborhood, the CDC has warned me not to kiss it. As if I would. I know better. I grew up on a farm. I do not kiss chickens or play with piglets when the mother is around. An angry sow targeted me for death when I was three. I barely escaped and I still remember it. That was enough piglet playing for me.

Most of us are aware we should be careful when cooking eggs or chicken, but we may not think twice before taking a cute photo of the kids kissing a baby chick. It is time to think twice.
chicken
On August 30th, the CDC issued an investigation notice regarding several multi-state outbreaks of salmonella infections linked to backyard poultry. At the time there were 1003 infections across 49 states resulting in 175 hospitalizations and 2 deaths. By now, there may be more.

Salmonella can cause mild, severe, or life threatening diarrhea depending on the person infected. Chickens, ducks, geese, and turkeys can contaminate their feathers, feet, beaks, and environment with salmonella even when they appear healthy and clean. People can get sick from touching coops, cages, hay, soil, feed, water dishes, and anything else in the bird’s environment even if they don’t touch the birds.

What I learned on the farm is that animals are carriers of disease so certain rules must be followed. The boots we wore in the barn came off in the utility room so we didn’t track contaminated soil into the house. Even if we had worn gloves, hands were washed thoroughly when we came in and always before cooking or eating. We wore shoes in the yard if we had dogs.

We washed our vegetables and fruits as a matter of routine. I never saw my grandmother sample a tomato or a piece of lettuce without washing it first. When we picked apples, we weren’t allowed to eat them until we got home. Huckleberries, blackberries, and strawberries had the same rule. We never placed raw meat on the same surface as the vegetables we were prepping.

As a child, I did not pick up wild animals that were sick even if they were teeny tiny and cute. If I saw a bat or possum during the day, I stayed away out of caution. That doesn’t mean I was taught to be fearful. I walked through a line of honeybees every time I went down the driveway. I didn’t run if I saw a spider or a snake as long as I determined it wasn’t poisonous.

Today, there seems to be a disconnect from these common sense rules. I now live in the city where if it’s cute most folks I know will let their kids pick it up and kiss it with no thought whatsoever. They’ll eat berries out of the farmer’s market crate without cleaning hands or fruit. But if they see a snake, bee, spider, or wasp of any kind, they run without ever looking to see whether it’s dangerous.

And there are other disconnects. Some friends who will only buy organic vegetables are quick to use wasp spray on their houses, insect spray on their skin, and Roundup® on their yards.
chickens
Perhaps a few common sense rules for disease prevention bear repeating:

Always wash your hands thoroughly using soap and water:
(Adults should supervise the hand washing of young children.)
Before eating and after using the bathroom.
After changing diapers or cleaning your toddler’s bottom.
Before preparing food, during food preparation after handling meat, eggs, poultry, fish, and seafood and again when food prep is done.
Before and after caring for someone who is sick.
Before and after visiting a hospital room.
After blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing or cleaning a child’s nose.
After touching animals, animal food, animal waste, animal blankets, saddles, leashes, bedding, or hay.
After handling pet food or pet treats.
After touching trash.

To prevent spread of colds, flu, stomach viruses, hand foot & mouth disease and other illness spread through close contact:
Do not share cups and eating utensils.
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces in your home (including toys), at work, and at school.
Follow hand washing recommendations and/or use hand sanitizer after contact with public handrails, door knobs, touchscreens, pens, shopping carts, elevators, remotes, vending machines, and shared keyboards and phones.
Stay home when you are sick.
Keep your child home when he is sick.
As often as possible, avoid close contact with people who are sick.
Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth especially when you are around someone who has a cold or flu.

To lessen the risk of giardia, cryptosporidium, campylobacter jejuni, E. coli, legionella pneumophila, hepatitis A, and salmonella:
Do not drink water from standing bodies of water or any water that may be contaminated with feces.
Try not to swallow water when swimming even in chlorinated pools.
Wash all fruits and vegetables thoroughly.
Follow hand washing recommendations.
Follow USDA recommendations for safe food handling.
Cook meat to the recommended temperature.
Pay attention to food recalls.
Keep farm animals out of the house.
Set aside a pair of shoes to wear while taking care of poultry and keep those shoes outside of the house.
Don’t eat or drink where poultry live or roam.
Stay outdoors when cleaning any equipment or materials used to raise or care for animals such as cages and feed or water containers.
Don’t eat after your pets.

Avoid hookworms by:
Wearing shoes when walking outdoors, especially in places that may have feces in the soil.

To avoid hepatitis B, rotavirus, diphtheria, whooping cough, pneumococcal infections, measles, mumps, rubella, tetanus, polio, chickenpox, meningitis, and HPV:
Stay up-to-date on long-lasting vaccinations and consider seasonal flu shots.

To lessen the risk of rabies:
Vaccinate your pets.
Leave stray cats and dogs alone.
Leave wild animals alone. Don’t keep them as pets.
Wash animal bites and scratches immediately with soap and water.
Consult a healthcare professional if you are bitten or scratched by an unvaccinated animal.

To lessen the risk of any illness:
Keep your body healthy, robust, and ready to fight disease by getting plenty of sleep, drinking plenty of fluids, eating nutritious food, being physically active, and managing stress levels.

And finally, it’s worth taking a moment to learn about the organisms with whom we share the planet. All spiders and bees are not to be feared and all furry creatures are not safe to embrace. If you’re determined to kill all insects anyway, please remember that poison is poison whether it goes on your skin, your yard, or your food.

If you want to choose a single piece of advice to help prevent disease, take it from the CDC and please don’t kiss the chickens!

https://www.cdc.gov/salmonella/backyardpoultry-05-19/index.html

https://www.cdc.gov/media/dpk/food-safety/live-poultry-salmonella/live-poultry-salmonella.html

https://www.cdc.gov/features/handwashing/index.html

https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/basics-for-handling-food-safely/ct_index

http://www.cooking2thrive.com/blog/?s=safety/

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