1.) Do you think safe food handling techniques have been practiced around you?
2.) Do you feel the tips are manageable? Why or why not?
3.) For those of you who will become future educators how would you encourage family’s to pack safe lunches? For those of you who will not become educators how much are you impacted by this topic?
4.) For everyone- Has learning how our body processes food-borne bacteria changed your views on eating meat?
5.) Are you disgusted?
It was refreshing to read the slide show on shellfish. To see that strict policies and regulations are in place at both state and federal government levels was a relief. After reading The Body Toxic, I was feeling as though regulations/regulators were inadequate (for example the EPA). The shellfish industry highlighted that maybe all is not lost, the harvest sites are regulated, there are strict guidelines for cleaning the clams (which included using UV light, so would that be considered a “radiated” food?), they keep thorough records, seal truckloads, and tag all bags with distributor information that businesses must keep for 90 days! All of this is in place to prevent illness and to recognize the source so there isn’t an outbreak. This made me feel much better about consuming seafood; it puts my mind at ease after the panic that Baker’s book instilled.
ReplyDeleteI practice safe food handling at home, although the one tip that made me feel guilty was to “thaw frozen meat, poultry, and fish in the refrigerator or microwave, never at room temperature.” I’ve always done that, until now of course! For me the tips were very manageable, many of them were taught at a young age and are practiced by habit.
Disgusted? “When we consume meat from animal sources we are often consuming the intestinal bacteria of the animal source…” I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disgusted.
When I read this I have to admit I was suprised what some of our food goes through before we eat it, all the packaging and shipping, and then to find out that we are eating all sorts of bacteria when we eat meat just disgusts me. And also learning that you arent supposed to thaw your meat out at room tempature suprised me also because that is what ive always done also!.. It is good though that we are making some precautions with seafood. But I dont think that we all practice good food handling, because there is still the fact that the place where the food is being stored, it could be disgusting or the people who handle your food may not wash their hands. I think that when there are large amounts of food involved some people dont take all the steps that they need to, which causes people to get sick. But I dont really know how to make it so that everyone does what they are supposed to.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! That video about the anti-bacterial food casing was really amazing (eggs and crab shell??)! If that comes through okay it seems like it will make a HUGE difference for the food industry as well as consumers. I hope the video was accurate though, in saying that it was "safe" and biodegradable, and not something we will find out about 10 years into use!
ReplyDeleteAs far as personal experiences with restaurants and other food service places around me, I think they are conducting safe food handling practices, but I have heard mixed reviews from other people who have gotten sick.
I work at a restaurant, and know well that there are many different regulations that enforced to ensure cleanliness but on the other hand, I have worked at this restaurant for 4 years and only once has an inspector visited. So if we did neglect any of the regulations that left leave a long time without consequence.
As far as personal food handling around me, after reading all the statistics of parents and their school aged children (a pretty crucial/vulnerable age), it's clear there is some unintentional neglect there. The tips were very manageable and I was relieved that all of them seemed like pretty common sense things, so the education must be getting out there! I also read an article that said not to rinse your raw meat in your sink before cooking because of bacteria. I was pretty horrified at the suggestion that I should leave bacteria on my meat to put in to my BODY rather than have it be in my sink! But as you suggested with the brand name cleaner for the sink. The article also suggested to boil kitchen sponges once a month to disinfect!
I had already seen some videos of meat plants and meat handling so it wasn't too surprising now, but the first time I did see one, I went vegetarian!
5) Yes.