The ABC's of Food Safety
Summer is finally here, bringing
sunshine, swimming, and holidays and best of all barbecues! Cooking
outdoors, basking in the sun's warmth while enjoying the company of
friends-Ah! Summer! But nothing spoils the fun like food poisoning
of which there are an estimated 1 million cases a year in Canada.
Following some basic rules of hygiene is imperative in order to
prevent food poisoning.
Hamburger disease, caused by Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, strikes hundreds every year. These bacteria, which reside in the intestines of animals like cattle, poultry and pigs produce a toxin in humans that can break down the lining of the intestines and damage the kidneys.
Grinding meat to make hamburgers for instance spreads bacteria usually found on the surface throughout the meat. Unless cooked through and through, meat can still contain E. coli bacteria. That's why it is so important to cook meat until it shows no pink.
- Wash hands, work surfaces and utensils before and after handling raw meat.
- Keep raw foods and cooked foods apart and use separate cutting boards for raw meats and vegetables. Never use the same plate for raw meat and cooked meat.
- Cook meat thoroughly. Make patties thinner and bigger around so that heat can penetrate more easily for evenly cooked meat that shows no pink. To destroy all E. coli bacteria, cook meat to an internal temperature of 160°F (70°C) .
- Refrigerate or freeze food quickly, within two hours of cooking it. Thaw meat in the refrigerator or microwave and cook immediately. Never thaw meat at room temperature as this fosters bacterial growth. Never refreeze thawed meat. Above all, throw out any meat that has been sitting at room temperature for more than two hours.
- Avoid the danger zone between 39°F and 140°F (4°C and 60°C) that fosters bacterial growth. Keep cold foods cold at or under 39°F/4°C and hot foods hot at or over 140°F/60°C. And avoid high-risk foods like steak tartare and carpaccio.
Unless frozen immediately, fresh meat, poultry and fish must be eaten within at most:
| 1 day | 2 days | 3 days | 7 days |
| ground meat | poultry, liver, heart, kidneys, fish, tongue, short ribs, stew meat, bones, delicatized or sandwich steaks | roasts, steaks, chops, spareribs, smoked sausages or store-wrapped cooked meats | salted, smoked or pickled meats |
The day following the date on the label counts as day 1.
Although ground meat has to be cooked through and through, not all meats have to be. You can still enjoy meat tender and rare as long as it's a non-delicatized full-muscle cut. The following cuts are highly recommended: T-bone steaks, rib steaks, rib eye, strip loin or filet mignon. However, delicatized cuts such as most specialty cuts or French cuts have to be thoroughly cooked.
Food poisoning isn't always easy to recognize because many of its symptoms are the same as for the flu (stomach cramps, diarrhea, outs of nausea, chills and headache). Although symptoms of food-borne infections usually appear within 4 to 48 hours after ingestion of contaminated food, it can take anywhere from thirty minutes to two weeks. That's why it is often difficult to see the link between an illness and the food that caused it.
Match the diseases to the proper definitions
| 1. Foot-and-mouth disease |
A. Officially known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) this disease, diagnosed in the United Kingdom in 1986, attacks the nervous system of bovines and, in rare cases, may be transmissible to humans. |
| 2. Scrapie |
B. A disease that affects animals. Canada has been free of it since 1952. |
| 3. Mad Cow Disease |
C. Disease that attacks the nervous system of sheep and that is not transmissible to humans. Fear, aggressiveness and a fixed stare are some of the behavioural disorders typical of this disease. |
Answers: 1B, 2C, 3A
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