How Safe is Your Food?

You’ve all had that experience. You eat a nice meal and then go to bed thinking all is just fine…until you wake up in the middle of the night with the sweats and a stomachache. The most likely culprit for that sickly feeling is food poisoning, a fairly common occurrence in the United States. According to the CDC, there are approximately 76 million cases of foodborne illness each year, with 325,000 resulting in hospitalization and 5,000 resulting in death.

Despite the fairly high prevalence, most people probably aren’t all that concerned about foodborne illnesses. In fact, there are a number of safeguards in place to minimize risk to consumers, not to mention the food safety guidelines we should all be following when handling food items at home. Let’s take a closer look at food safety in general and address some practical tips you can use to keep yourself safe and healthy.

It’s hard to forget about the beef recall back in mid-February, where the USDA issued a recall of 143 million pounds from a southern California company. This was the largest beef recall in United States history. And just last week, Malt-o-Meal announced they were voluntarily recalling their unsweetened Puffed Rice and Puffed Wheat cereals because of the potential for Salmonella poisoning. Apparently their in-house inspections discovered the bug, prompting them to act quickly and decisively to protect consumers.

So with all the recent publicity surrounding these food recalls, the question begs: Is your food supply less safe compared to previous years? The answer is probably not. You have to remember that the food supply is tightly regulated, and protecting consumers is a top priority for the industry. After all, they supply you with food and you supply them with profits. Will some companies cut corners to get more products to the market faster? Sure, but for most companies, it is in their best interest to provide the safest and cleanest products possible. Luckily, there are a number of safeguards in place to help accomplish this goal.

HACCP is an acronym that is widely used in the food industry, and it stands for Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point. This is a progressive system used to monitor the production of food from the factory to the store shelves. Critical control points are identified throughout the process and steps are taken to minimize foodborne illness risks at those points. The government uses this process in their inspections and individual companies often use it internally to promote a safer product for consumers. You can even apply HACCP principles from the point at which you buy a food until the time you eat it at the table.

It really comes down to common sense. How should you handle food at the market, where should you store it at home, how should you prepare it and what should you do if there are leftovers when you’re finished? Most people can answer these questions pretty easily, and the steps taken at each point help to minimize the risk of foodborne illnesses. Let’s simplify things even further, and focus on things you can do to reduce your risk.

Cook. Separate. Chill. Clean. Report.

These are the keys to preventing foodborne illnesses in your home. Cook foods to their appropriate temperatures using an internal thermometer, and be especially careful with meats, seafood and poultry. Separate foods from one another. Make sure to wash your hands and all utensils after they’ve touched raw foods. Cross-contamination from raw products to cooked products is a very common cause of illness. Chill your food quickly after a meal since bacteria grow rapidly at room temperatures. Clean your hands before you start food preparation and wash all produce to remove any potential sources of contamination. Using a commercial fruit and vegetable spray will help to remove pesticide residues as well. Lastly, report any potential foodborne problems you come across. State and local health departments are more effective when consumers are proactive in providing information.

Foodborne illnesses are clearly an important issue. Though the number of illnesses is estimated to be in the millions each year, we don’t really know how many are caused by consumers themselves. Hopefully, safeguards within the food industry, at the federal level and at the local level are good enough to prevent frequent outbreaks. Based on the size of the food supply and the potential illnesses caused by consumers themselves, it appears that industry and government are doing a pretty good job. There will always be exceptions to the rule however. It simply isn’t realistic to think that all foodborne illnesses can be prevented. Ultimately, you need to do what you can to keep your family safe. Minimizing your risk isn’t that difficult, but it does require practicing sound food safety guidelines on a daily basis.