How to Prevent Food Poisoning: A Practical Guide to Safe Cooking, Eating, and Food Handling

HOW TO PREVENT

FOOD POISONING

HOW TO PREVENT

FOOD POISONING

A Practical Guide to Safe Cooking,

Eating, and Food Handling

Elizabeth Scott, Ph.D.

Paul Sockett, Ph.D.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 1998 by Elizabeth Scott and Paul Sockett. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (508) 750-8400, fax (508) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850-6008, E-Mail: PERMREQ@WILEY.COM.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Scott, Elizabeth

How to prevent food poisoning : a practical guide to safe cooking, eating, and food handling / Elizabeth Scott, Paul Sockett.

    p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-471-19576-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Food handling. 2. Food contamination. 3. Food poisoning-Prevention. I. Sockett, Paul . II. Title.

TX537.S38 1998

363.19′26--dc21

97-49025

CIP

For our families

Andrew, Raoul, Loren, and Joshua

—E. S.

Rosemarie, Fiona, Lisa, and Philip

—P. S.

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART ONE

WHAT IS FOOD POISONING?

1     THE RISE OF FOOD POISONING

The Iceberg Effect

2     WHAT CAUSES FOOD POISONING?

Chemicals

Solid Objects

Naturally Occurring Poisons

Germs and Parasitic Worms

Allergies and Food Intolerance

Growth and Multiplication of Bacteria

3     EGGS, HAMBURGERS, BERRIES, WATER, AND MAD COW DISEASE

Salmonella

Hamburger Disease: E. Coli

Diarrhea and Berries

Watery Problems

Mad Cow Disease

Antibiotic Resistance and Food Poisoning Germs

PART TWO

FOOD POISONING AND YOU

4     SYMPTOMS AND COMPLICATIONS OF FOOD POISONING

Common Symptoms and Their Severity

Complications of Food Poisoning

Who Gets Food Poisoning?

5     WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET FOOD POISONING

PART THREE

HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING WHEN SHOPPING

6     CHOOSING WHERE TO SHOP FOR FOOD

Visual Clues for a Safe Food Store

How to Become a Revolting Consumer

7     SHOPPING FOR FOOD

Selecting Fresh Meat

Selecting Fresh Seafood

Shopping for Fresh Produce

Shopping from Delis, Salad Bars, and Bakeries

Shopping for Refrigerated and Frozen Foods

Shopping for Canned, Dried, and Bottled Foods

8     THE CHECK-OUT AND GETTING THE FOOD HOME SAFELY

PART FOUR

HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING IN YOUR KITCHEN

9     STORING FOOD AT HOME

Refrigerated and Frozen Foods

Canned, Bottled, and Dried Foods

Fruits and Vegetables

Breads and Pastries

Deciding When to Reject Food

10  PREPARING AND COOKING FOOD SAFELY

Raw Foods of Animal Origin

Preventing Cross-Contamination

Eggs

Cooking Food to Make It Safe

Safety Tips for Cooking

Tasting the Safe Way

Making Recipes Safe

Cooking on the Grill

Microwave Cooking

11  SERVING FOOD SAFELY AND DEALING WITH LEFTOVERS

Serving a Safe Buffet

Dealing with Leftovers

12  COOKING FOR HOLIDAYS AND PARTIES

The Big Holiday Meal

Parties at Home

13  HOME FOOD PRESERVATION

Botulism

Preservation Techniques

14  KITCHEN DESIGN AND SANITATION

Planning a Kitchen and Choosing Equipment

Hygienic Handwashing

Cleaning and Sanitizing in the Kitchen

PART FIVE

SAFE COOKING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS

15  COOKING FOR HIGHER-RISK INDIVIDUALS

What Foods Should Higher-Risk Individuals Avoid?

How to Cook for a Higher-Risk Individual

Dietary Factors that Can Increase the Risk of Foodborne Illness

16  COOKING FOR SENIORS AND SINGLES

PART SIX

SAFE EATING AWAY FROM HOME

17  HOW TO AVOID FOOD POISONING À LA CARTE

Pointers to Safe Food Restaurants and Take-Outs

Traveling Abroad

Eating Safely at Campsites, Picnics, and Potlucks

Camping

Picnics

Preparing and Cooking for Potlucks and Nonprofit Events

PART SEVEN

THE SCIENCE OF FOOD POISONING

18  HOW FOOD POISONING GERMS MAKE YOU ILL

The Body’s Defenses Against Food Poisoning

The Human Digestive Passage

The Germ

Type 1: Poison (Toxin) Produced in the Food

Type 2: Poison (Toxin) Released in the Intestines

Type 3: Infection in the Intestines

Type 4: Infection in the Blood and Body Organs

The Food

PART EIGHT

SELF-ASSESSMENT

19  FOOD SAFETY QUIZ

Test Your Knowledge of How to Prevent Food Poisoning

APPENDIX

The Rogues’ Gallery: An A-Z Guide to Food Poisoning Germs

Bacteria

Viruses

Parasites

Seafood Toxins

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We wish to thank the many friends and colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic who have supported and encouraged us in the writing of this book. Many people have answered our questions with a generosity of time and enthusiasm. You are anonymous, but you know who you are and we thank you.

We thank our literary agent, Bill Adler, himself a survivor of a life-threatening encounter with Salmonella food poisoning, for making contact with us in the first place, and for his help and encouragement in preparing the proposal for this book. We thank Fiona Sockett for her ideas for illustrations and for preparing the drawing that appears in the book. We also thank Dr. Jeff Farber of Health Canada and Laurie M. Malcom and Tracy Geran, Sanitary Inspectors in Newton, Massachusetts, for their technical advice.

Final thanks go to our editor, Tom Miller, who not only took on the task of bringing together our two different styles but also offered many valuable ideas and patiently showed us how to craft our first book, and to his assistant, Elaine O’Neal.

INTRODUCTION

When Sheila rushed her young baby into the emergency room suffering from severe vomiting, dehydration, and fits, her only concern was for the recovery of her child. Later, after three days of worry, she began to wonder how the baby had become ill and why it was the only member of the family to do so.

The illness suffered by Sheila’s baby was not an isolated incident. Scientists believe that each year millions of people in industrialized countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan succumb to food poisoning. The toll is probably even higher in developing countries where hygiene and sanitation are poorer than that found in industrialized nations. Big outbreaks of food poisoning make headlines like KILLER BUG IN YOUR FOOD and HUNDREDS ILL IN FOOD SCARE, but as many as half of all cases are part of a quiet epidemic that repeats itself in many of our homes every year. Much of this illness could be prevented.

Food poisoning is costly in many ways. The physical and emotional costs are painful. Most people suffer a few days of discomfort, inconvenience, and lost work or school. A smaller but significant number develop more severe forms of illness and are admitted to a hospital. Still others experience long-term disability or even die. In addition, the financial costs of illness cannot be ignored: for just one victim, medical costs, loss of work, home help costs, and so forth could run into the thousands of dollars.

While it is in the best interests of food manufacturers to make every effort to ensure that our food is safe to eat, through the application of good practices in production, transport, and retailing, it is currently not possible to guarantee this 100 percent. National and local governments also try to protect our food supplies through food production and food hygiene legislation and codes of safe practice, through inspection and enforcement, monitoring, education, and research, but may be frustrated by the limitation of resources available to them. It seems that almost every year a new bug appears or a new risk is identified. In the past few years alone there has been a steady stream of media reports about big outbreaks of Salmonella food poisoning or new food poisoning germs such as E. coli, which caused the hamburger disease, and BSE, the cause of mad cow disease.

With all the media reports of Salmonella food poisoning and of children dying from hamburger disease, you’d think that everyone would be making an effort to prevent these outbreaks and tragedies. Yet our combined experience, which covers over thirty-five years of research into food poisoning and food hygiene, shows that people preparing food go on making the same mistakes— allowing raw food to contaminate kitchen surfaces and cooked food, storing ready-to-eat food too long at room temperature, or simply failing to wash their hands after a visit to the toilet. Next time you visit a public toilet, note how many people leave without washing their hands—one of those people could be going to work in the restaurant where you’re about to lunch.

From conversations we’ve had with consumer groups and on televised talk shows, we know that people are concerned about food safety but that they either do not understand the causes of food poisoning or don’t know how to put their knowledge into practice, especially in the home situation. It is for this reason that we wrote this book. We felt it was important both to give an easy-to-read account of how food poisoning happens and to provide a step-by-step guide to safe shopping, preparation, cooking, and storage of food in everyday home situations.

We know that there are a host of reasons why people don’t follow basic food hygiene rules. Some may simply lack knowledge or be unwilling to believe that the things they’ve done for the last thirty years are risky, or they’re too busy to take the time. For others, it may be a matter of beliefs or attitude or simply space considerations (My kitchen is just too small to stick to the rules). In reality, these are excuses not reasons. This book gives practical guidelines that are an easy addition to everyone’s food-handling skills. These guidelines do not require a lot of extra time or fuss, they do not require a special kitchen, and it is never too late to learn new skills.

The last line of defense against most food poisoning is the person who buys, prepares, and cooks the food. This book is therefore specifically aimed at anyone who prepares food in the home, whether for themselves or for their family and friends. We have divided the book into sections that describe food poisoning and how specific germs make people sick. We talk about some of the current concerns in food safety, and most important, we take you through all the aspects of safe purchase, transport, preparation, and storage of food. Whenever necessary, we address specific concerns of people at higher risk of developing severe illness, including the very young, the elderly, those with serious existing illnesses such as cancer and leukemia, and those with damaged immune systems caused by infections such as AIDS or by treatment with chemotherapy.

Read each section independently, or read the entire book for a more complete and detailed understanding of food poisoning and how to prevent it. Whatever your approach, we would encourage you to check out the sections on safe food handling in Parts Three and Four. When you’ve done that, test yourself by working through the quiz in Chapter 19 and see how much you’ve learned. Above all, we urge you to put your knowledge into practice in your own kitchen. We cannot guarantee that you’ll never get food poisoning, but you certainly could reduce the risk and prevent unnecessary illness to yourself and your family in the future.

PART ONE

WHAT IS FOOD POISONING?

1

THE RISE OF FOOD POISONING

Headlines warning of a killer bug in hamburgers, chicken, cheese, salad, or fruit seem to be common fare these days. No headlines, however, could have prepared Maureen and Jim for the personal anguish of watching their previously healthy daughter struggling to survive kidney failure as her little body was ravaged by the so-called hamburger disease—the tragic outcome of eating an undercooked hamburger served at a party five days earlier. After a stormy three weeks, Maureen and Jim are left counting the cost of an illness that should never have occurred. Their family life has been turned upside-down and from now on will revolve around their daughter’s need for regular kidney dialysis. Coupled with this is the desperate hope of a kidney transplant and the worry about its success. Their main concern at the moment is for their daughter’s recovery, but they will soon need to focus on the financial costs of treatment and convalescence and on the disruption to their lives and careers.

Sadly, such stories appear all too frequently in newspapers and magazines and on talk shows, reflecting public concern over what should be a preventable disease. They also illustrate the potential seriousness of food poisoning. Although most victims experience only a few days of inconvenience and discomfort, others progress to life-threatening complications and long-term disability—and some die.

In addition to the miserable physical symptoms, food poisoning can be costly in terms of medical bills, missed work opportunities, canceled arrangements, and spoiled holidays. Personal costs can also include such things as replacing soiled clothing and bedding, buying extra disinfectant and cleaning materials, and employing home help as needed. Studies show that these costs are borne not