This might belong on the preps page.

My wife just got food poisoning.. At a picnic thrown at a fishing derby apparently they got a little sloppy with the spatula they used.. They served cooked burgers with the same spatula they used for raw meat.. Managed to poision half of my wife's family and probably several others..

I now know the importance of 'untainted food'.. I've got dehydrated food, and canned food. I know that my canned food is good for one or two years, but the dating system they use is un-intelligible. Is there some test you can do on an open can of food to check for bacteria?

I know you can try to smell it and look at the color.. but I'm sure the burger TASTED good right until the e.coli or whatever set in.

Bryce

-- Bryce (bryce@seanet.com), September 08, 1999

Answers

Try staying away from animal products - that should cut your risk by about 99.9%!

-- Y2KGardener (gardens@bigisland.net), September 08, 1999.

If it goes swish it's a tasty dish!

-- fats kissinger (draconionsolutions@uselesseaters.com), September 08, 1999.

bryce...

don't use canned foods if the can is "bulging" ....

heat kills a lot of the most common contaminants...like ecoli and salmonella....so cook everything throughly

if in doubt....toss it out

-- andrea (mebsmebs@hotmail.com), September 08, 1999.

Tomatoes and their products tend to go bad easily. Even in professionally canned products. Beans can be a problem too. Yes throw out the bulging cans. In home canning be extra careful!

E-coli comes from "waste" products in animals, it origionates in their intestines. It also comes from humans.

There have been a lot of receint outbreaks in lakes and on ocean shores (Calif). Sewage from lakefront homes and sewage overflows into bodies of water is causing most of the problems.

If a healthy adult eats meat with e-coli in it they may get the runs and think they have the flue, but when the very young and very old are infected they can and do die. When the sewage from these people are dumped into lakes and other bodies of water, people swimming in it can get E-coli poisening.

People "going" over the side of their boats cause this problem also.

When beef are gutted they are sprayed with hoses and the feces and contents of the intestines are splattered all over the carcas. If not cleaned correctly the bactteria will travel with the meat all the way to your butcher where the contaminated meat can can pass the E-coli to other products by using the same surfaces.

Butchers used to "clean" the meat before putting it out to be sold, most no longer do.

By cleaning I mean the ground up stuff that is left when the meat is cut.

Always assume that the outer portion (SKIN SIDE) of the steak you eat is contaminated.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), September 08, 1999.

Well put, Cherri, thanks. I might add that as you prepare what you are storing either via jerking or canning, you need to be INCREDIBLY careful about your work area and tools. Steramine (available in restaurant supply houses) and clorox (most use a 4 or 5 water to 1 of 5% clorox, I use a 1 or 2 water to 1 clorox, but I don't mind bleaching everything white) are great as disinfectants and surface and tool cleaners.

As we are getting things ready, Mrs. Driver has been known to break out in laughter watching me prepare the area in the kitchen, considering what I usually consider to be a normal standard of "clean", or of housework being considered "complete". However, I KNOW I have cleaned the work area and that there are NO critters there to bite me in a couple months. I call it "Confidence through Clorox".

Chuck, a bleachin' fool when he's cannin' and not drivin'

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), September 08, 1999.

Canned food- properly canned, is good for a very long time. The nutritional quality may slip some- but it's not bad food. if the can isn't leaking or bulging, and the contents don't spit out when it's opened, and they smell and look fine- they are probably just fine- commercially canned that is. In home canning, just be careful, know what you're doing, keep it clean, and don't take risks.

I buy dented cans for cheap all the time- no problem. i also don't worry about expiration dates on the canned stuff either. I did draw the line at the aspirin with an expiration date of 1995 that I saw for sale this week however.......

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), September 08, 1999.