Cohousing-L Mailing List: Sterilizing, food handling, sponge corners

[Lynn Nadeau (welcome]

At RoseWind Cohousing, we found the local health department was willing 
to come to us in our common house and do a video, discussion, and card 
issuance for as many of us as wanted to get food handlers' permits. Some 
of us already had been through this, for working in restaurants and such. 
But a dozen members showed up. We paid the fee from meal-money surplus 
(it was about $10 each). 

I was skeptical, as what I'd remembered from such classes was that it was 
mostly about handling meat, which is seldom relevant here. But, 
especially in the question session with the expert, we learned some new 
information. 

For example, most of us had believed that you didn't have to worry about 
food poisoning from letting soup sit out too long during assembly, 
soaking beans unrefrigerated, or such, if you were going to "boil it 
anyway." Like the boiling or baking would protect you. We learned that 
with some serious sorts of poisoning, although the heat will kill the 
germs, the harm is done by the toxins the germs have emitted - and heat 
doesn't neutralize those. 

We learned that eggs which are anything but thoroughly cooked (solid) 
have, in Washington State, been transmitting serious illness, and that 
this is true whether it's factory-farmed commercial eggs or local organic 
eggs.

We already knew air drying dishes was best, but with limited counter 
space and only so many dish racks for our DW machine, we DO expedite it 
with dish cloths. So we've bought a stack of white flour-sack dish towels 
and written "dishes only" on them, and even the least conscious folks 
seem to have caught on to that one, and the cloths go into the laundry 
after one meal. 

Sponges are never recommended by health folks, but we also use sponges, 
for hand washing of some dishes, and for counters and such. We've had 
some luck with a corner-clipping routine: 
The sponges we use are rectangular. A sponge with all its corners is for 
dishes. One corner clipped is for counters, two corners clipped is for 
furniture, three for floor, and beyond that-- pitch it! This means that 
as a sponge gets more used, more corners get clipped, and new ones are 
added at the "whole" end of the spectrum. A visual chart on the fridge is 
a reminder. (We run the sponges through the laundry too - though not the 
dryer.)

The next thing we have to start doing is making up a bowl of sanitizing 
solution (one teaspoon bleach per gallon, so it's quite weak) for wiping 
counters, knives, etc with during food prep. You need to make it fresh 
each day, as the chlorine evaporates. 

Oh, and that food handling training was fun, because we did it together: 
I don't think the instructor had ever had a room full of people all 
laughing out loud at some of the dumb multiple-choice questions on the 
final test! 

A last food safety bit: the parent group has been working on training the 
young children not to serve themselves (which often gets grubby hands on 
the food) but to ask someone to serve them. And young children simply 
aren't allowed in the kitchen around meal times. They use the change in 
flooring material as their "line" and are quick to point out to guest 
children that "you can't go on the red part". This serves food safety, as 
well as the more obvious safety issues around hot stuff and knives. 



Lynn Nadeau, RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend Washington (Victorian seaport, music, art, nature)
http://www.rosewind.org
http://www.ptguide.com
http://www.ptforpeace.info (very active peace movement here- see our 
photo)

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