This section contains a listing of frequently asked questions asked of S.T.O.P. officials pertaining to foods and foodborne illness. FAQ specific to victims can be found on the Victims' FAQ. We have broken questions down into the following sections:
Specific Foods Q: How can I tell if a juice has been pasteurized? A: If a product does not need to be refrigerated, it has been ultrapasteurized. These juices sit on unrefrigerated shelves in juice boxes, cartons and glass bottles in you grocery store. In the refrigerated section, you cannot be sure unless the juice carries the term "pasteurized" on the label. Q: My child is going on a field trip to an apple orchard. Should he/she drink the apple cider? A: Only if it is pasteurized juice. In 1997, the FDA began recommending that children drink only pasteurized cider, and that children on field trips specifically drink only pasteurized cider Q: What is flash pasteurization? "Flash" pasteurization is a process that brings the juice up to a certain temperature very quickly and then cools it very quickly. It is based on the idea you don't need to "cook" a juice for a long time in order to successfully kill the organisms. Rather, if you just expose the organism briefly to its worst heat, it will die and the juice flavor won't change a lot. The trouble with "flash" pasteurization is that it is intended to achieve a "5-log killstep." If for some reason, · the juice heats unevenly OR · the equipment doesn't work right OR · the strain of organisms is more heat resistant OR · the juice has different levels of acidity, sweetness, etc. flash pasteurization is more likely to end up with contamination than other forms of pasteurization, specifically because the margin for error is smaller. Likewise, though FDA is trying to validate different methods of pasteurization and organism reduction, the reality is that these new methods of pathogen-reduction are not necessarily all backed by unbiased government science with the organism in the juice that is being made. Lastly, many small manufacturers are just putting pasteurization equipment in so the processor's experience with maintaining and operating the equipment should be taken into consideration. In short, for at-risk groups, pasteurized and ultrapasteurized juices will be safest from pathogenic contamination.
Q: Is unpasteurized juice safe if I make it myself? A: There are several different risks associated with unpasteurized juices that you want to consider whenever you drink unpasteurized juice. These include the following: - risk of contamination on the fruit or vegetable
- quantity of fruit or vegetables in the juice
- sanitary conditions
- length of time between juicing and consumption
The first question you want to ask is: what is the probability that the fruit or vegetables I am using are contaminated? The issue with most juice contamination is that somewhere in the chain from the fruit to the consumer, some part of the process came into contact with animal feces. Generally, it is believed that this occurs when the fruit is grown or picked. Contact with feces may be intentional, as when a fruit or vegetable is grown with manure or pathogen-laden compost. Or it can be unintentional, as when wild bird droppings on the fruit or vegetable go unnoticed. Fruit or vegetables grown ON or IN the ground are at greater risk of contamination than fruit or vegetables grown high above the ground, UNLESS treeborne fruit or vegetables drop onto the ground OR animals, such as birds, come into contact with the fruit. In the case of unpasteurized apple juices, several outbreaks have been linked to the use of apples picked up off the ground where the ground was possibly contaminated with deer droppings. "Drop" apples or "grounders" are not usually seen in your commercial grocery store. In the apple industry in particular, there are several grades of apples. Commercial Grade apples are: "apples of one variety unless designated as mixed varieties, which are not - which are not overripe
- which are free from
- decay
- worm holes
- freezing injury and internal breakdown
- free from any other defect, or combination of defects"
"Cider" grade apples do not meet all of the above requirements. Instead, they are apples which are merely free from: - decay
- worm holes
- and internal breakdown.
In other words, commercial cider can employ lower overall quality fruit, and in particular fruit that can be overripe, suffering from freezing injury or other defects--defects that might have kept you from buying it at a grocery store, defects that might have tipped you off that it had fallen on the ground. In selecting your fruit, you can reduce your risk by choosing to grow your own fruit/vegetables far from animal manure or compost. For home juicing, be very wary of fruit or vegetables when you do not know - whether the fruit or vegetable was grown with a manure-based fertilizer or
- whether it was grown next door to a cattle farm or dairy.
Pathogens can be transported in dust by wind and they can be carried by insects, so growing and picking your own fruit would not be safer if you have exposed manure (wild or domestic) nearby. The central problem, for all produce served uncooked or lightly cooked, is that it is impossible for the consumer to rid contaminated fruit or vegetables of pathogens without cooking the produce thoroughly. If you are intent on making unpasteurized juice, the best solution may be to boil the exterior of the fruit or vegetable for a second or two to ensure that organisms on the surface have been killed. If the fruit or vegetable has not been penetrated (scratches, forks, bird pecks), this will reduce the risk of illness. The boiled exterior can then be peeled before juicing. You do not want to cut into the produce before boiling it because cutting and peeling can transfer organisms from the skin of the food to the interior. What size batch of juice are you making? If you are making small batches of juice, you are already one step ahead of the commercial, unpasteurized juice producers in reducing risks. The more fruit or vegetables that go into a juice, the higher the probability that a single piece of contaminated fruit will get in. A commercial processor might use a thousand or ten thousand pieces of fruit in a batch. Unfortunately, once in, the contamination can spread throughout the entire batch, and in the case of E. coli O157:H7, it takes very few organisms (less than 10) to make someone deathly ill. Do you clean and sanitize your equipment between uses? Unsanitary equipment either in the home or a commercial plant can spread contamination from a single piece of fruit to multiple batches of juice. A dishwasher with water heated to a high temperature such as 150 degrees will typically kill pathogens. Lastly, how long does the juice go between when it is juiced and when it is consumed? If you juice it and drink it right away at home, then there is very little time for organisms to grow. If you are drinking commercial juice, perhaps the juice is shipped to a grocery store and allowed to sit in the back before they get a chance to put it in the refrigerated case. Then, when a consumer buys it, she or he walks around the store for a half an hour with the juice in their shopping cart and then it sits in the back of the car for another half hour before being put back into the refrigerator at home. These type of time and temperature variations increase the overall risk. In short, home squeezed unpasteurized juice has some safety advantages over commercial unpasteurized juice, but probably not enough for the at-risk groups to which FDA recommends avoidance of unpasteurized juices: the elderly, children, and the immune impaired. To this group, S.T.O.P. adds pregnant women as well. Q: If I grow alfalfa sprouts myself, won't they be safer? A: Absolutely not. The point of contamination in alfalfa sprouts is the seed itself. In the United States today, there is no commercial distinction between alfalfa seed sold for human vs. animal consumption. In fact, seed is imported from all over the world, and outbreaks have been traced to foreign-sourced seed as well. The field may become contaminated either with wild animal feces or through fertilization with manure-related products. It is believed that when the alfalfa is harvested with a combine, dirt, fertilizer and dust are kicked up into the alfalfa and thereby contaminate the seed. Unfortunately, if the seed becomes cracked (usually only visible with an electron microscope), it is virtually impossible to eliminate pathogens without harming the germinating properties of the seed by methods available today. As of March, 1999, commercial growers have received permission to soak seed in high concentrations of chlorine to reduce the overall contamination; however, this method is not considered sufficient to eliminate pathogens. Q: Aren't oysters safe in certain months? A: Oysters are least likely to be contaminated with Vibrio vulnificus during the months of December through February. They are most likely to be contaminated during the months of April through October, when 85% of illness has occurred. It should be noted that infections and deaths have been recorded in ALL months of the year in twenty-eight states! Q: What states have warnings about raw shellfish? A: The State of Florida, along with California and Louisiana have restaurant menu warnings. All food service establishments serving raw oysters in Florida are required by the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, and the Department of Business Regulation, to display, "either on menus, table placards, or elsewhere in plain view of all patrons", the following notice: "There is a risk associated with consuming raw oysters. If you have chronic illness of the liver, stomach or blood, or have immune disorders, you are at greater risk of serious illness from raw oysters, and should eat oysters fully cooked. If unsure of your risk, consult a physician." California adds the word "death" in their warning. Also, the State of Florida has the ONLY "point-of-retail-purchase" consumer warning, for any food item, in the country. This initiative applies to the sale of oysters in grocery stores, seafood markets, delis, and such, across the state, requiring the above warning to be prominently posted on glass selling cases. Food Preparation
Q:
Can't I just wash bacteria off of produce?
A:
Washing reduces contamination, it does not eliminate it. With
several foodborne pathogens, 1 to 10 bacteria is all it takes
to kill an individual; therefore, to avoid life threatening
illness, the pathogens must be completely eliminated, which
can only be achieved by consumers through cooking at high
temperatures. The exact time and temperature is determined
by which pathogen you want to kill. Pathogens can be reduced
from produce by washing the produce with a mixture of 1 teaspoon
bleach to 1 quart of water. However, many different surfaces
of produce which hinder a thorough washing (think of a cantaloupe
rind), along with the absorbency of their stem scars (grapes,
tomatoes) makes it challenging to say that consumers can ever
completely eliminate life-threatening pathogens from the many
fruits and vegetables we typically eat uncooked or lightly
cooked.
Q:
What is the safest way to prepare a turkey?
A:
There are six points to which you should pay particular
attention:
- defrosting,
- preparing
stuffing,
- utensils,
- stuffing
the bird,
- while
the bird is cooking, and
- when
the bird comes out.
Defrosting.
If you have bought a frozen turkey, defrost your turkey
in the refrigerator. Depending on the size of your turkey,
this will take many hours or even days, so it is best to start
at least 48 hours prior to when you plan to cook the turkey.
The second best way to defrost it is to immerse it in cold
water, changing the water every half hour. To keep pathogens
from spreading through the water, you might want to put the
turkey in a plastic, leak proof bag before using the "water
defrosting" method. Do not defrost a turkey on the counter!
Preparing
stuffing. Cook any other parts of the turkey (e.g. liver,
gizzard, heart), meats such as sausage or oysters, and eggs
or other "uncooked" elements prior to mixing them
into the stuffing.
Utensils.
Use a separate set of utensils, cutting board and plate for
the raw turkey. Do not use the raw turkey utensils, plates,
etc. with other foods or with the cooked bird.
Stuffing
the Bird. It is safest to cook the stuffing without putting
it into the bird, though this is not traditional. If you are
going to stuff the turkey, cook the stuffing first and put
it into the bird hot. If you put cold stuffing into a turkey,
it will be unlikely that the internal temperature of the bird
will rise sufficiently to kill the bacteria.
After
the Bird Is In the Oven. This would be a good time to
wash with soap all utensils, cutting boards, plates, counters,
seasoning jars and shakers, etc. that have come into contact
with the bird prior to working on other parts of the meal.
Bleach is a good disinfectant. Put the sponge in the dishwasher
and get out another one for the rest of the day.
When
the Bird Comes Out. Remove all stuffing immediately and
refrigerate any excess that won't be used at once. Carve all
the meat at the same time and again, refrigerate any excess
at once. Food should not sit at room temperature for more
than 2 hours.
If
you are a guest in someone's home, the white meat is most
likely to have been cooked thoroughly. If the bird was stuffed,
you may want to ask that your children not be served stuffing.
Q:
If I cook hamburger until it is brown completely through,
is it safe to feed to others?
A:
Not necessarily. Hamburger must reach an internal temperature
of 160 degrees to kill any pathogens and be safe to eat. A
hamburger can look fully cooked but still be far below the
safe 160 degree temperature level due to a phenomenon known
as "premature browning." The USDA has revised its
cooking temperature recommendation for ground beef to match
the scientific evidence.
Q:
What if I'm at a restaurant and don't have a meat thermometer
with me to check?
A:
Ask the restaurant manager what are their time/temperature
standards. It should be 160 degrees Farenheit for at least
1 second or 155 degrees for 15 seconds, 150 for 1 minute,
145 for 3 minutes. You should also ask whether the restaurant
checks the temperature of each burger to ensure it reaches
the proper temperature and ask how often they calibrate their
thermometers.
If
not, or they don't know, don't order it. Many fast food restaurants
have these systems in place but you still should ask. Alternately,
consider ordering a whole cut of meat instead of ground beef
because theys products are less risky. To be safest, members
of at-risk groups should not eat ground beef outside of the
home where they can have complete confidence that the preparer
thoroughly understands the cooking temperature requirements.
Disease
Q:
I had an E. coli infection, and it was killed by antibiotics.
What is the fuss all about?
A:
E. coli O157:H7 is caused by bacteria that live
in the intestines of healthy cattle, deer, sheep and other
ruminants. When the contaminated feces of these animals comes
into contact with our food, while it is being grown, harvested,
processed or transported, it enters our food supply. If the
food is not cooked thoroughly (160 degrees for E. coli
O157:H7), the organisms can be consumed and arrive in the
human intestinal tract.
Once
in the human intestinal tract, these truly foreign organisms
can do great damage. They begin by destroying the lining of
the intestines, causing frequent, watery, and often bloody
diarrhea. As the body attempts to excrete them, the person
experiences cramping similar to labor pains. If the organism
is successful at putting a toxin into the bloodstream, elements
of the blood begin to breakdown and clots form. The kidneys
are merely the first organ to demonstrate obvious damage as
they are being harmed by the damaged blood, but they must
also excrete the wastes building up in the blood. As damage
cascades throughout the body, a person can sustain strokes,
coma, blindness, multiple organ failure and death.
E.
coli infections in the human urinary tract are caused
by common bacteria from the human colon getting into the urethra
and bladder. These infections are typically easily alleviated
with antibiotics. Antibiotics are ineffective in the treatment
of an E. coli O157:H7 infection and can, in fact, worsen
its outcome
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