Image by Shafin Al Asad Protic from Pixabay
Protect yourself from foodborne illness this winter by keeping food safety in mind.
The consequences of food poisoning can have a wide range. From mild gastrointestinal upset, to seriously contemplating your life choices, to life-threatening, or even deadly. Don’t gamble with your health. Protect yourself from foodborne illness and know what to do if the worst happens.
But first, let’s talk about what kinds of germs are most likely to cause foodborne illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) regularly updates the statistics for estimates of the number of U.S. domestically acquired foodborne illnesses causes by the seven major pathogens.
They crunch the numbers on the number illnesses, hospitalization, and deaths involving Campylobacter spp., Clostridium perfringens, invasive Listeria monocytogenes, norovirus, Salmonella (nontyphoidal), Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC), and Toxoplasma gondii.
The agency counts around 9.9 million domestically acquired foodborne illnesses caused by the six major pathogens. Campylobacter spp., C. perfringens, invasive Listeria, norovirus, Salmonella, and STEC.
Hospitalizations from all seven pathogens (including Toxoplasma gondii) totaled 53,300. These pathogens were also responsible for 931 foodborne illness deaths in that year.
The worst offenders were norovirus, Campylobacter spp., and Salmonella. Causing the most domestically acquired foodborne illnesses.
The most fatal were Salmonella, Campylobacter spp., norovirus, and invasive Listeria. These germs are responsible for causing the most deaths from domestically acquired foodborne illnesses.
Scary. And scarier!
But what can you do to protect yourself from foodborne illness in the first place?
That’s what I am here for!
Prevention is the best approach for most of life’s obstacles and problems. This advice also rings true for foodborne illnesses.
In some cases, contamination risk is out of your control.
For example, you have no control over a sick food worker. You have to trust that the restaurant’s management appropriately trains staff to report foodborne illness and keeps an eye on appropriate food safety protocols in the kitchen.
You also have no control over gross contamination of ingredients you purchase. You have to trust that producers and processors follow safe handling procedures.
With so much out of your control, the potential for foodborne illness sounds hopeless.
But it isn’t.
Not entirely.
There are a few things you can do to help protect yourself from foodborne illness that are well within your control.
Take control of your fate by following these simple steps.
Your hands are the gateway to foodborne illness. It is how we interact with the world, how we prepare our food, and how we eat. All aspects can contribute to foodborne illness.
Throughout the day we can pick up germs. From touching railings on a staircase, to opening doors (even those in our own home), to bathroom activities. Hugging our family and friends, inspecting things at the store, and so on.
Washing your hands with soap and running water is your first line of defense. Rinse those germs down the drain before they can make you sick.
Wash your hands before you eat, before you prepare food or serve food to others, after using the bathroom or helping others in the bathroom, or any time you feel like you may have gotten germs on your hands.
If soap and water is not available, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer and wash your hands as soon as possible.
Fresh produce, especially those that will not undergo a heating process sufficient to kill lurking germs, are susceptible to spreading foodborne illness. Even the bagged, prewashed varieties that claim they are “ready-to-eat.”
Inspect the produce and remove wilted leaves on lettuce or crevices on carrots or ginger where bacteria can easily grow.
Raw meat is a common carrier of foodborne germs. These foods are rendered safe after cooking them to an appropriate internal temperature to kill bad bugs lurking inside.
Fresh fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, are often consumed raw.
Keep these two categories of food separate to avoid cross contamination.
Store them separately in the fridge to keep them from touching. Even their juices.
Don’t use the same cutting boards, knives, or other utensils on meat and then fresh produce. Unless you thoroughly wash them before using them again.
Be safe. Separate.
The last thing you want to do after a big meal shared with a group is get up and do kitchen chores. Especially on a full belly with great conversation in front of you.
The dishes can wait.
But the leftovers cannot.
If you plan to save over-prepared food for later, refrigerate leftovers as soon as possible.
Foodborne germs start to multiply once food reaches the “danger zone” – the temperature range of 40° F to 140° F where germs happily reproduce quickly to infectious numbers.
For warm food, that clock starts ticking as soon as it drops to 140° F and is only paused once it reaches refrigeration temperatures of 40° F.
What’s the timer on that clock?
Two hours. Unless the ambient temperature is above 90° F. In that case, the timer drops to one hour.
It seems like every day a new food recall or safety alert hits the headlines. Keep up to date on foodborne recalls by checking in on the FDA’s recall table. Food recalls, market withdrawals, and safety alerts are published here in real time.
Don’t purchase or consume recalled food and monitor your symptoms if you have already consumed it before discovering it was recalled.
Which brings us to the sad, but important next topic.
If, despite your vigilance, foodborne germs still fell through the cracks and you become sick, it is possible your illness was caused by one of those unavoidable circumstances that you trust others to keep safe.
What should you do?
If you are seriously ill, a proper diagnosis could mean the difference between prolonged illness and potential complications and prompt recovery.
Reach out to your healthcare provider and let them know that you may have food poisoning. They will order specialized laboratory tests that will help them determine the germ responsible for your illness.
If your illness is part of a larger outbreak, a list of the foods and drinks you consumed in the weeks prior to you becoming sick may help track down the source.
Be as thorough as possible. Include places you purchased the food. Whether you ate at home or dined out. As well as any other people who may have been exposed to the same food.
Do this as early as possible, while the information is still fresh in your mind.
If you have fallen ill with foodborne illness, you may have a legal claim. Get advice from an experienced foodborne illness lawyer.
Medical bill, lost wages, caring for a loved one, and other burdens associated with foodborne illness add up. You don’t have to go at it alone.
The Lange Law Firm, PLLC has a food poisoning lawyer can help you successfully navigate the legal process and get you the justice you deserve.
Call (833) 330-3663 or fill out the online submission form today for a free, no obligation consultation.
By: Heather Van Tassell (contributing writer, non-lawyer)
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