Lessons of the Spinach Scare
If the recent outbreak of the E. coli infection traced to fresh spinach has left you worried about what's on your plate, breathe a little easier: Despite the recent high-profile problem, food-borne illness has been steadily declining in the United States.
Today, the odds of getting sick from tainted food "are overall about a third less than they were in 1998," says Richard Raymond, undersecretary for food safety at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Infection rates in some categories have dropped even more. There's been a nearly 50 percent reduction in shigella – linked to potato, tuna, shrimp, chicken and macaroni salads – and yersinia – sometimes found in undercooked pork – while reported rates of campylobacter, a bacterium that can be found in undercooked poultry, has dropped by 39 percent since 1998.
Listeria – an unwanted bacterium that can sometimes affect dairy products, including brie, feta and blue cheese – is also declining.
All that may come as little comfort to the 76 million people that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate suffer upset stomachs, gut-wrenching diarrhea, vomiting and other symptoms annually from various food-borne illness. Up to 5,000 deaths, including one so far from the recent E. coli outbreak in spinach, are also blamed on tainted food and drink each year.
As with other illnesses, the young, the old and those whose health is already compromised seem more vulnerable to the worst effects of food-borne illnesses. Improvements in the food supply – including establishment of "good growing" practices for lettuce established by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – seem to have helped reduce outbreaks. (Following the recent E. coli outbreak, those growing practices have just been expanded to include spinach.)
But as USDA's Raymond notes, "The bad news is that we still don't have the science to declare that raw meat or poultry products or even cooked products are pathogen-free. The FDA can't guarantee that either for fruit and vegetables. We're both doing a better job, but we're both still struggling."
Such common-sense steps as washing hands frequently and keeping cutting boards and cooking utensils well scrubbed with hot soapy water remain the first line of defense. Also important is the oft-repeated advice to keep raw meat, poultry and eggs separate from raw produce or other foods that could become cross-contaminated. That's just for starters, according to Diane Van, manager of the USDA's meat and poultry hotline for consumers. Here's some other things to keep in mind:
- Take your refrigerator's temperature. While you're at it, check the freezer's, too. You'll probably need to invest in thermometers for both, since few models come with them these days. Keep the refrigerator at 40 degrees or lower, Van says. The freezer needs to be at zero or lower. By the way, bacteria rarely if ever grow in the freezer, but the quality of the food may deteriorate over time, due to loss of water. That's what produces "freezer burn."
- Stirred, not shaken. That's the advice for food cooked in the microwave, which doesn't uniformly heat food. Cool spots can provide just the right conditions for food-borne bacteria to grow. So stir dishes well halfway through cooking.
- Look for expiration dates. "Sell by" dates are for the grocer; "use by" dates are for you. Don't buy products past the "sell" date and don't use them at home past the "use" date. The clock is ticking. Once you open an item, the clock starts ticking. Use luncheon meat within three to five days of opening; yogurt within seven to 14 days. Cream cheese should be consumed within two weeks. Freeze other cheese, such as grated mozzarella, after you've opened it, if you're not going to use it in the next couple of days. Fresh eggs "will last three to five weeks in the refrigerator," Van says, provided that you keep them in the refrigerator, not on its door. But once you've hard-boiled those eggs, use them within a week. Egg substitutes will last about 10 days unopened, "but once opened, you should use them within three days," Van says. Skip the mold. You may be tempted to cut off the small moldy corner on a slice of bread and eat the rest, but that's not wise. Mold often has microscopic roots that can grow deep within a food. So toss food with mold on it, since it can cause allergic reactions or produce mycotoxins that can make you very sick. The exception: hard cheese, such as cheddar, which is so dense that mold has trouble growing filaments into it. Trim off the mold and the rest is fine to eat.
- Cook with a food thermometer. It's the only sure way to know that your food has reached the proper temperature to kill food-borne bacteria. Figure 160 degrees for meat and poultry; 165 degrees to reheat leftovers. Don't want to bother? Consider that not using a food thermometer "often results in inadvertently overcooking food," Van says. "If you use a food thermometer, the food is often juicier." And safe.
- Resist tasting food to see if it's okay. When in doubt, throw it out.