Cohousing-L Mailing List: Food Safety Guide

[barbara keppel (71612.340]

>From The Center for Science in the Public Interest comes 
"Nutrition Action Health Letter" for Oct '99, Vol 26, No.8. It 
may be on line too, maybe at <www.cspinet.org> 

Much of the issue is a Food Safety Guide with descriptions of the
problems, what to do for prevention, what to do if you get sick, 
etc., etc. There's even a full page chart "meet the bugs" 
describing symptoms, foods that cause outbreaks, how soon it 
strikes, how soon it ends. Well worth reading and keeping for 
reference.

There are interesting and helpful explanations of the new bugs 
and why we need to be wary in areas where we never worried 
before. For example, RAW SPROUTS. Bacteria and seeds like 
precisely the same conditions - warmth & moisture - to grow well.
The FDA says there is no way to guarantee the safety of sprouts 
and recommended not eating them raw.(July'99) Sprouts 
contaminated by e coli may get it from food handlers but some of 
the really big outbreaks have been traced to debris in seed bags 
imported from Italy, Hungary, or Pakistan, and from rodents and 
birds in a shipper's warehouse in the Netherlands.  

Exerpts:

"Microbes are showing up in foods they never used to 
inhabit...Salmonella was only found in foods of animal 
origin...now it's in fresh produce..."

Some of the nastiest bugs simply weren't around before. Food-born
e.coli 0157:h7 didn't exist before 1982.

Thanks to Sharon Villines who asked for more info on sprouts.

BobBI