How to Prevent Food Poisoning

Paul Sockett, Elizabeth Scott

Description

All the information you need to protect yourself and your family

From salmonella to deadly E.coli, from hepatitis-infected berries to mad cow disease, millions of people all over the world are getting sick from food they've eaten. How can you be sure the food you prepare for your family is safe? How can you protect yourself when eating out? What do you need to look out for?

How to Prevent Food Poisoning gives you the facts, figures, and information you need to safeguard your family's health. From the many different causes and complications of food poisoning to workable guidelines that are practical and easy to follow, this unique guide gives you everything you need to select, prepare, and store food without risk or worry. Here are the right ways to:
* Be sure the food you're buying is safe
* Prevent food contamination in your home
* Transport and store food properly -- including leftovers
* Eat safely in restaurants
* Reduce germs in the kitchen.
WHAT IS FOOD POISONING?

The Rise of Food Poisoning.

What Causes Food Poisoning?

Eggs, Hamburgers, Berries, Water, and Mad Cow Disease.

FOOD POISONING AND YOU.

Symptoms and Complications of Food Poisoning.

What To Do If You Get Food Poisoning.

HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING WHEN SHOPPING.

Choosing Where to Shop for Food.

Shopping for Food.

The Check-Out and Getting the Food Home Safely.

HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING IN YOUR KITCHEN.

Storing Food at Home.

Preparing and Cooking Food Safely.

Serving Food Safely and Dealing with Leftovers.

Cooking for Holidays and Parties.

Home Food Preservation.

Kitchen Design and Sanitation.

SAFE COOKING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS.

Cooking for Higher-Risk Individuals.

Cooking for Seniors and Singles.

SAFE EATING AWAY FROM HOME.

How to Avoid Food Poisoning A La Carte.

THE SCIENCE OF FOOD POISONING.

How Food Poisoning Germs Make You Ill.

SELF-ASSESSMENT.

Food Safety Quiz.

Glossary.

Bibliography.

Index.

Sujets

• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Famille
• Fitness
• Safety
• Health
• Eating
• Elizabeth Scott

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 02 mai 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470347195
• Langue: English

Extrait

HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING
HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING
A Practical Guide to Safe Cooking, Eating, and Food Handling
Elizabeth Scott, Ph.D. Paul Sockett, Ph.D.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 1998 by Elizabeth Scott and Paul Sockett. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc.
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone]. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, [phone], fax [phone], E-Mail: [e-mail].
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Scott, Elizabeth
How to prevent food poisoning : a practical guide to safe cooking, eating, and food handling / Elizabeth Scott, Paul Sockett.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-471-19576-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Food handling. 2. Food contamination. 3. Food poisoning-Prevention. I. Sockett, Paul . II. Title.
TX537.S38 1998
363.19 26--dc21
97-49025 CIP
For our families
Andrew, Raoul, Loren, and Joshua
-E . S.
Rosemarie, Fiona, Lisa, and Philip
-P. S .
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE WHAT IS FOOD POISONING?
1 THE RISE OF FOOD POISONING
The Iceberg Effect
2 WHAT CAUSES FOOD POISONING?
Chemicals
Solid Objects
Naturally Occurring Poisons
Germs and Parasitic Worms
Allergies and Food Intolerance
Growth and Multiplication of Bacteria
3 EGGS, HAMBURGERS, BERRIES, WATER, AND MAD COW DISEASE
Salmonella
Hamburger Disease: E. Coli
Diarrhea and Berries
Watery Problems
Mad Cow Disease
Antibiotic Resistance and Food Poisoning Germs
PART TWO FOOD POISONING AND YOU
4 SYMPTOMS AND COMPLICATIONS OF FOOD POISONING
Common Symptoms and Their Severity
Complications of Food Poisoning
Who Gets Food Poisoning?
5 WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET FOOD POISONING
PART THREE HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING WHEN SHOPPING
6 CHOOSING WHERE TO SHOP FOR FOOD
Visual Clues for a Safe Food Store
How to Become a Revolting Consumer
7 SHOPPING FOR FOOD
Selecting Fresh Meat
Selecting Fresh Seafood
Shopping for Fresh Produce
Shopping from Delis, Salad Bars, and Bakeries
Shopping for Refrigerated and Frozen Foods
Shopping for Canned, Dried, and Bottled Foods
8 THE CHECK-OUT AND GETTING THE FOOD HOME SAFELY
PART FOUR HOW TO PREVENT FOOD POISONING IN YOUR KITCHEN
9 STORING FOOD AT HOME
Refrigerated and Frozen Foods
Canned, Bottled, and Dried Foods
Fruits and Vegetables
Breads and Pastries
Deciding When to Reject Food
10 PREPARING AND COOKING FOOD SAFELY
Raw Foods of Animal Origin
Preventing Cross-Contamination
Eggs
Cooking Food to Make It Safe
Safety Tips for Cooking
Tasting the Safe Way
Making Recipes Safe
Cooking on the Grill
Microwave Cooking
11 SERVING FOOD SAFELY AND DEALING WITH LEFTOVERS
Serving a Safe Buffet
Dealing with Leftovers
12 COOKING FOR HOLIDAYS AND PARTIES
The Big Holiday Meal
Parties at Home
13 HOME FOOD PRESERVATION
Botulism
Preservation Techniques
14 KITCHEN DESIGN AND SANITATION
Planning a Kitchen and Choosing Equipment
Hygienic Handwashing
Cleaning and Sanitizing in the Kitchen
PART FIVE SAFE COOKING FOR SPECIAL NEEDS
15 COOKING FOR HIGHER-RISK INDIVIDUALS
What Foods Should Higher-Risk Individuals Avoid?
How to Cook for a Higher-Risk Individual
Dietary Factors that Can Increase the Risk of Foodborne Illness
16 COOKING FOR SENIORS AND SINGLES
PART SIX SAFE EATING AWAY FROM HOME
17 HOW TO AVOID FOOD POISONING LA CARTE
Pointers to Safe Food Restaurants and Take-Outs
Traveling Abroad
Eating Safely at Campsites, Picnics, and Potlucks
Camping
Picnics
Preparing and Cooking for Potlucks and Nonprofit Events
PART SEVEN THE SCIENCE OF FOOD POISONING
18 HOW FOOD POISONING GERMS MAKE YOU ILL
The Body s Defenses Against Food Poisoning
The Human Digestive Passage
The Germ
Type 1: Poison (Toxin) Produced in the Food
Type 2: Poison (Toxin) Released in the Intestines
Type 3: Infection in the Intestines
Type 4: Infection in the Blood and Body Organs
The Food
PART EIGHT SELF-ASSESSMENT
19 FOOD SAFETY QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge of How to Prevent Food Poisoning
APPENDIX
The Rogues Gallery: An A-Z Guide to Food Poisoning Germs
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
Seafood Toxins
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to thank the many friends and colleagues on both sides of the Atlantic who have supported and encouraged us in the writing of this book. Many people have answered our questions with a generosity of time and enthusiasm. You are anonymous, but you know who you are and we thank you.
We thank our literary agent, Bill Adler, himself a survivor of a life-threatening encounter with Salmonella food poisoning, for making contact with us in the first place, and for his help and encouragement in preparing the proposal for this book. We thank Fiona Sockett for her ideas for illustrations and for preparing the drawing that appears in the book. We also thank Dr. Jeff Farber of Health Canada and Laurie M. Malcom and Tracy Geran, Sanitary Inspectors in Newton, Massachusetts, for their technical advice.
Final thanks go to our editor, Tom Miller, who not only took on the task of bringing together our two different styles but also offered many valuable ideas and patiently showed us how to craft our first book, and to his assistant, Elaine O Neal.
I NTRODUCTION
When Sheila rushed her young baby into the emergency room suffering from severe vomiting, dehydration, and fits, her only concern was for the recovery of her child. Later, after three days of worry, she began to wonder how the baby had become ill and why it was the only member of the family to do so.
The illness suffered by Sheila s baby was not an isolated incident. Scientists believe that each year millions of people in industrialized countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Japan succumb to food poisoning. The toll is probably even higher in developing countries where hygiene and sanitation are poorer than that found in industrialized nations. Big outbreaks of food poisoning make headlines like KILLER BUG IN YOUR FOOD and HUNDREDS ILL IN FOOD SCARE, but as many as half of all cases are part of a quiet epidemic that repeats itself in many of our homes every year. Much of this illness could be prevented.
Food poisoning is costly in many ways. The physical and emotional costs are painful. Most people suffer a few days of discomfort, inconvenience, and lost work or school. A smaller but significant number develop more severe forms of illness and are admitted to a hospital. Still others experience long-term disability or even die. In addition, the financial costs of illness cannot be ignored: for just one victim, medical costs, loss of work, home help costs, and so forth could run into the thousands of dollars.
While it is in the best interests of food manufacturers to make every effort to ensure that our food is safe to eat, through the application of good practices in production, transport, and retailing, it is currently not possible to guarantee this 100 percent. National and local governments also try to protect our food supplies through food production and food hygiene legislation and codes of safe practice, through inspection and enforcement, monitoring, education, and research, but may be frustrated by the limitation of resources available to them. It seems that almost every year a new bug appears or a new risk is identified. In the past few years alone there has been a steady stream of media reports about big outbreaks of Salmonella food poisoning or new food poisoning germs such as E. coli , which caused the hamburger disease, and BSE, the cause of mad cow disease.
With all the media reports of Salmonella food poisoning and of children dying from hamburger disease, you d think that everyone would be making an effort to prevent these outbreaks and tragedies. Yet our combined experience, which covers over thirty-five years of research into food poisoning and food hygiene, shows that people preparing food go on making the same mistakes- allowing raw food to contaminate kitchen surfaces and cooked food, storing ready-to-eat food too long at room temperature, or simply failing to wash their hands after a visit to the toilet. Next time you visit a public toilet, note how many people leave without washing their hands-one of those people could be going to work in the restaurant where you re about to lunch.
From conversations we ve had with consumer groups and on televised talk shows, we know that people are concerned about food safety but that they either do not understand the causes of food poisoning or don t know how to put their knowledge into practice, especially in the home situation. It is for this reason that we wrote this book. We felt it was important both to give an easy-to-read account of how food poisoning happens and to provide a step-by-step guide to safe shopping, preparation, cooking, and storage of food in everyday home situations.
We know that there are a host