Food safety is a hot holiday topic

By Lois M. Collins
Deseret Morning News staff writer

If the recipe for fruit salad called for smearing bacteria on watermelon, you'd probably choose a different dish. And if it said you should add a heaping teaspoon of salmonella to the chicken entree, you'd never make it.

But that's exactly what people do when they don't prepare food properly.

Keeping food safe is not just an outdoor sport. Neither weather nor time of year puts eaters at risk, but rather whether food is allowed to languish in the 40- to 135-degree range called the "danger zone," because that's where bacteria multiply the most. And when it comes to food-borne illness, more is definitely not better. How much pathogen is on food may determine in part how sick one becomes, Becky Low of the Utah Dairy Council said.

Charlotte Brennand, food safety specialist with the Utah State University Extension, said melon and other fruits and vegetables should be washed off. Fruits and vegetables that have been in and on the ground, exposed to who knows what in irrigation water, are more likely to carry undesirable bacteria.

Cutting them can spread the contamination from the rind down into the fruit, like buttering bread with bacteria. That's why it's important to keep melons at cold temperatures that inhibit bacteria growth.

Jacob Schmidt of the Utah Beef Council showed how to avoid cross contamination while cooking meats, starting with not putting cooked foods back on an unwashed plate that was home to raw meat. Or using the raw-food fork to pick it up when it's cooked.

Bottom line: Cooked and raw food require different utensils and plates. And meats have to be cooked to bacteria-unfriendly temperatures: chicken at least 180 degrees, steak 145 degrees and hamburger 160 degrees. Food thermometers are actually safety devices.

Cooking food's only half the battle. You still have to keep it at the proper temperature long enough to be consumed, whether it's hot or cold. Food needs to spend less than two hours in that danger zone, the temperature at which contaminants multiply. And when the two hours are up, so's the food, if it hasn't been refrigerated or reheated. To be completely safe, it has to be thrown away.

The number of cases of foodborne illness seems to spike during summer months, when more people are eating outdoors and having potlucks, Brennand said.

Among the tips for keeping food safe: Make sure your refrigerator's cold enough and get food into it promptly. Don't overfill the refrigerator or it won't cool properly. Thaw food in the refrigerator, not on the cupboard. And divide large quantities of leftovers to promote quicker cooling.

E-MAIL: lois@desnews.com