Johns Hopkins Health Alert
Foodborne Illness: Separating Fact From Fiction
Most people know that clean hands and properly cooked food are the best ways to avoid a foodborne illness. However, confusion and doubt persist about many other popular preventive measures. Here, we separate the facts from fiction among the most commonly used methods to help prevent a foodborne illness.
The Claim: Washing your hands with hot water and antibacterial soap kills the most germs.
The Truth: Close, but not quite. Washing your hands is key, but you need to do it properly. First, you should use warm water, not hot. Hot water makes your skin dry and prone to develop cracks and grooves where bacteria like to hide. Any kind of soap is fine, as long as you scrub vigorously for 20 seconds -- friction helps the soap break down skin oils where bacteria thrive.
The Claim: Using antibacterial hand sanitizers that require no water will destroy all bacteria and viruses.
The Truth: Antibacterial gels can be helpful, particularly when you’re on the go, but they only work on clean hands. The gel can’t penetrate a layer of dirt to attack the bacteria beneath.
The Claim: You should always rinse poultry and meat before cooking it to get rid of some of the bacteria.
The Truth: Although rinsing poultry and meat may wash off some of the bacteria, you run the risk of splashing bacteria onto other foods or kitchen surfaces in the process -- essentially doing more harm than good.
Properly cooking poultry to 165˚ F; pork, ground beef, lamb, and veal to 160˚ F; and steaks and roasts to 145˚ F, as recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), will thoroughly kill any bacteria. Also reduce your risk of cross-contamination by having a separate cutting board and set of utensils to prepare raw meat, fish, poultry, or eggs and use hot water and soap to wash these supplies. In addition, all cutting boards and countertops should be sanitized after use with a solution of 1 tsp of chlorine bleach in 1 qt of water.
The Claim: Leftovers need to be cool before you can store them in the refrigerator.
The Truth: Hot food won’t harm your fridge, but left-out leftovers may harm you: Room-temperature foods double their bacteria count every 20 minutes. And once they’re allowed to multiply, certain strains -- like Staphylococcus -- won’t be killed off in the reheating process.
Refrigerate or freeze leftovers within two hours of serving the meal (or within one hour if the room temperature is 90˚ F or more). Pack your leftovers in shallow containers so the food cools quickly, and cut meats into slices of three inches or less. Use your refrigerated leftovers within three to four days. Leftovers stored in your freezer should be eaten within two months.
Posted in Digestive Health on January 18, 2010
Reviewed January 2011
Medical Disclaimer: This information is not intended to substitute for the advice of a physician. Click here for additional information: Johns Hopkins Health Alerts Disclaimer
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Sir/Ms: Re: Food-Borne Illness, Most excellent! Now I finally have confirmation of my practices and philosophy from a world renown source. Godd health, Andre Cadet
Posted by: longevity | January 27, 2010 2:16 PM