Category Archives: food-safety

Frozen Food Must Be Cooked Properly

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Farm Rich Foods

One year ago, an E. coli outbreak linked to Farm Rich frozen products was announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The 19-state outbreak, the seventh-largest, multi-state food poisoning outbreak of 2013, sickened 35 people, most of them under the age of 21.

A number of Farm Rich products were recalled in association with the outbreak including Mozzarella Bites, Mini Pizza Slices, Mini Quesadillas and Philly Cheese Steaks which were all distributed nationwide. Retailers that sold the products included: Alco, Food Lion, Food City, Price Chopper Ralph’s, Safeway, Schnuck’s, Supervalu, Target, and Winn Dixie. Of the 10 million pounds products recalled, about 300,000 pounds were sold to schools.

About 82 percent of those infected with the E.coli outbreak strain were 21 or younger. The outbreak called attention to two important food safety issues: processed foods can be contaminated with bacteria and the kill step role of the consumer. Many pre-packaged frozen foods require thorough cooking, before they are safe to eat, not just thawing or warming. Particular attention should be paid to foods that can’t be stirred, such as pizza, burgers and snack food items, which can be tricky to heat thoroughly and evenly in a microwave. When cooking foods in the microwave, it’s best to know the wattage and follow directions carefully. This information is usually on the top or side of the door.

Just under a third of those sickened, about 31 percent, were hospitalized including two people developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious, sometimes life-threatening condition that develops after some E.coli infections.

Is the microwave a safe way to cook all foods?

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Should microwaves be used to safely cook or simply reheat food?

Depends.

An outbreak of salmonella in Minnesota last week was once again linked to frozen, raw chicken thingies — in this case breaded, pre-browned chicken cordon bleu and chicken Kiev produced by Milford Valley Farms.

This is the fifth such outbreak the Minnesota disease detectives have traced to such products in the past decade. Similar outbreaks have been reported in British Columbia and Australia.

Kirk Smith of the Minnesota Department of Health said one of the victims in the current outbreak prepared the frozen entree in a microwave, even though that method of preparation is not recommended on the package.

Because of past outbreaks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wrote to food processors in 2006, and said,”While consumers may be directed to cook the products to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit (F), if they are directed to use a cooking method that is not practical or not likely to achieve the necessary level of food safety (e.g., microwaving or cooking frozen product in a toaster oven), the cooking instructions may not be valid.”

In response to the current outbreak, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) issued a public health alert on March 29, 2008, and reminded consumers of the crucial importance of following package instructions for frozen, stuffed raw chicken products and general food safety guidelines when handling and preparing any raw meat or poultry.

“It is especially important that these products be cooked in a conventional oven. All poultry products should be cooked to a safe minimum internal temperature of 165° Fahrenheit as determined by a food thermometer. Using a food thermometer is the only way to know that food has reached a high enough temperature to destroy foodborne bacteria.”

That same Saturday in March, Koch Foods, a Fairfield, Ohio, establishment, recalled approximately 1,420 pounds of frozen chicken breast products because they were packaged with the incorrect label. The frozen, pre-browned, raw products were labeled as “precooked” and therefore do not provide proper preparation instructions. These raw products may appear fully cooked.

Labels may be changed, but do people read labels? It appears that consumers could think that raw, pre-browned products are pre-cooked, when they are raw.

Adenovirus

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This one is new to me, and quite an interesting virus.

According to research, there are 55 different types of human adenovirus types numbered HAdV-1 to HAdV-55. Each of these types comes in seven different species from A through G. Different types of adenoviruses cause different types of sicknesses including fever, respiratory disease, conjunctivitis (pink eye), cystitis (bladder infection), and gastroenteritis. The sickness you contract depends on what type of adenovirus you are exposed to. For example, if you breathe in a certain type of adenovirus, you may get respiratory disease, but if you swallow adenovirus… Well, you can probably guess.

The type of adenovirus that is spread through food and water through the fecal-oral route is called Enteric adenovirus, or adenovirus occurring in the intestines. If you eat food that was prepared by someone with adenovirus who didn’t wash their hands properly, or swim in a pool that isn’t properly chlorinated, you could get this type of adenovirus. It causes (if you haven’t guessed already) gastroenteritis, which is also known as the bane of human existence: “the stomach flu.”

As many foodborne illnesses do, adenoviruses most often attack those with weakened immune systems, including elderly adults, pregnant women, and children. In fact, Enteric adenovirus is responsible for 5 to 20% of gastroenteritis in young children. Interestingly, however, 85% of children develop immunity to the disease by the time they are four years old. But of the remaining 15%, some have persistent adenovirus infections in their intestines. These people may not have symptoms, but the virus is shed for months—and even years!
– See more at: http://blog.statefoodsafety.com/adenovirus-dont-eat-drink-or-breathe/comment-page-1/#comment-162024

Properly Freezing, Thawing, and Reheating Foods

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chicken legs

Did you know that improperly cooled food is a possible cause of foodborne illnesses? There are a lot of American homes today that don’t know the possible results of cooling food the wrong way.

How to Freeze Foods Properly

Properly Freezing, Thawing, and Reheating Foods Safely helps prevent bacterial growth on our food. Don’t wait for hours before you refrigerate your food. Bacteria and other food-borne pathogens are proliferating on your food by the second, the longer you leave the food at the room temperature. If it’s hotter the pathogen growth will be faster.

When you buy foods, especially perishable ones like meat, etc., make sure that when you get home, immediately put food in the freezer. This will prevent the food from spoiling and becoming home to known food-borne pathogens around (like Salmonella, E.coli, Listeria and more).

Don’t overcrowd your fridge. Make sure that there is still space for air to circulate.

How can you achieve this? Follow the FIFO rule. This means consuming first the foods that you stored in the fridge first. The same goes when throwing out food stored in the fridge for too long.

Check foods stored in your fridge for quite a while if they’re already expired or nearing their expiry date. Throw them out if they’re past their expiration or best before date. If the food is nearing its expiry date, make sure that you consume it before that date. Take note of that the “best before” and “use by” warnings on the label are indications of the product’s freshness, as deemed by the manufacturer. They do not necessarily mean dates that indicate when food is going to spoil or when food is no longer safe to eat.

To prevent unknown elements that go into your food, make sure that you properly cover it with their own container lids or wraps.

How To Thaw Foods Properly

There are a lot of ways we typically do thawing and most of them are unsafe (like leaving the frozen goods on the counter) and can make bacteria grow faster on the foods. Here are the safest methods you can do to thaw food before you cook it.

Cooking Foods without Thawing – Don’t have time to thaw foods? Cook it straight. The FSIS USDA said that it is completely safe to do so, although you have to note that it takes a bit longer to cook the food.

Cold Water Thawing – This method is much faster than the fridge thawing method. Before thawing, make sure that the food package is leak-proof. Bacteria from surrounding environment can be introduced to the food if the package has holes or dents. It can make the food soggy too because of the moisture getting in.

Make sure that you have a container where you can submerge the entirety of the food. You don’t want to have a half of the product exposed to air and half of it submerge. Keep changing the water every 30 minutes until the food continues to thaw. Small packages can be thawed in an hour or even less. Larger package can take 2-3 hours.

Refrigerator Thawing – If you got lots of time on your hand, this method is good for you. A large food (like turkey) or even small ones takes at least a day to thaw. You may also want to check your fridge’s temperature, because there may be some areas in your fridge that may keep food colder and colder longer. Food will take longer to thaw in temperatures in 35 degrees Fahrenheit than of 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Microwave Thawing – This method requires you to cook the food right away. While the food is being thawed in the microwave, portions of the food are already warmed, putting the food in the “danger zone” where microbes grow at a faster rate.

How To Reheat Foods Properly

Make sure that leftovers are cooked with an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep them warm and consume immediately within two hours. If the food will take longer than 2 hours to reheat, reheat it in small batches to save time. Make use of a food thermometer to check the internal temperatures of the food. And take note: reheating foods in higher temperature doesn’t result in faster cooking; just because the food’s surface has been burnt to a crisp doesn’t mean the internal portions have been thoroughly cooked.

Who to Report Food Safety Issue To

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Report a Problem with Food

If you have a problem with a food product…
Separate government agencies are responsible for protecting different segments of the food supply. If you have experienced a problem with a food product, be sure to contact the appropriate public health organization.

For Help with Meat, Poultry and Processed Egg Products:
Call the toll-free USDA Meat and Poultry Hotline at 1-888-MPHotline (1-888-674-6854) or report the complaint online.

For Help with Restaurant Food Problems:
Call the Health Department in your city, county or state. View a complete listing of State Departments of Public Health.

For Help with Non-Meat Food Products (Cereals, Fish, Produce, Fruit Juice, Pastas, Cheeses, etc):
For complaints about food products which do not contain meat or poultry — such as cereal — call or write to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Check your local phone book under U.S. Government, Health and Human Services, to find an FDA office in your area. The FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition can be reached at 1-888-723-3366.

In order for the USDA to investigate a problem with meat, poultry or egg products, you must have:

The original container or packaging
Any foreign object that you might have discovered in the product
Any uneaten portion of the food (refrigerate or freeze it)

Information you should be ready to tell the Hotline on the phone includes:

Name, address and phone number;
Brand name, product name and manufacturer of the product
The size and package type
Can or package codes (not UPC bar codes) and dates
Establishment number (EST) usually found in the circle or shield near the “USDA passed and inspected” phrase;
Name and location of the store, as well as the date that you purchased the product.
You can complain to the store or the product’s manufacturer if you don’t choose to make a formal complaint to the USDA.

If you think you are ill, see a physician.
If an injury or illness allegedly resulted from use of a meat or poultry product, you will also need to tell the Hotline staff about the type, symptoms, time of occurrence and name of attending health professional (if applicable).

The Bottom Line:
If you sense there’s a problem with any food product, don’t consume it. “When in doubt, throw it out.”