By Nicci Micco, M.S., Content Director, Custom Publishing & Licensing for EatingWell
Every year, 76 million Americans get sick from food, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Nothing you can do will ever guarantee 100 percent protection against food-borne illness, but taking certain precautions can help reduce your risk. Some of these protective steps are common sense, like washing your hands before you eat. Others aren't so obvious. Read on to discover five surprising sources of food-borne "bugs" in your kitchen that we've written about in EatingWell Magazine, and how to protect yourself.
What do you do to keep your kitchen and your food safe?
By Nicci Micco
Nicci Micco is Content Director, Custom Publishing & Licensing for EatingWell and co-author of EatingWell 500-Calorie Dinners. She has a master's degree in nutrition and food sciences, with a focus in weight management.
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I don't have ANY anti-bacterial anything in my house. I clean it the same way my parents and gransparents did. I don't take antibiotics unless the doctor tells me to. I know the difference between the common cold and a virus that just needs to run its course.
Keep disinfecting and sterilizing your environments! Keep using the antibacterial lotion dispensers popping up all over the place ....... and watch yourself become a victim of H.G. Wells - be killed by the common cold because your body never learned how to defend itself!!!!
Be aware chicken little, the sky is falling.
I realize it hasn't become a very common kitchen appliance yet, but if you happen to have one of those countertop sous vide water oven units, you can pasteurize eggs yourself by placing whole eggs in the water bath at 135 deg F for 75 minutes, instead of paying extra for pre-pasteurized eggs at the store.
I find this works exceptionally well for pasta carbonara, since not only are you removing the risk of the eggs not being cooked sufficiently by the heat of the pasta, the eggs are also warm, so they're not cooling down the pasta before it has a chance to do its job on the eggs. (If you don't pasteurize the eggs, at least let them come up to room temperature.)
I use it on counters, sink and sponges daily
Really you don't need even that much bleach. I learned as a bacteria control R.N. a 10 to 1 water to bleach will kill the AIDS virus