New cantaloupe food poisoning outbreak

How do you know what is safe, what is risky, and how you can eat safely in a world where you don’t know the source of your food?

There is currently a recall for salmonella-tainted, pre-sliced cantaloupe in the US and Canada, with a total of 259 cases of illness, 140 hospitalizations, and 8 deaths linked to the outbreak. We’ll start with the important stuff: you can find the FDA information on what is recalled here, it’s for cantaloupe sold under the “Malachita” and “Rudy” brands, and the FDA and CDC are also advising consumers to not eat cantaloupe if you don’t know which company it came from.

If this or other cases of foodborne illness has you concerned, there’s good news. The first is that we have one of the safest food systems in the world. After all, you’re hearing about this, and we have agencies that are investigating it and publishing the details so that you can know what isn’t safe to eat. Second, there are a few practical tips you can follow to greatly reduce your risk.

Where is the risk?

Like everything in life, food safety is complicated, but there are a few general categories that risk falls into. First, more foodborne illness comes from restaurants or other food preparation outlets than from homes. In the home environment, the risk generally comes from one of two places: contamination of groceries before they get to your house, and contamination after you bring it home.

We’ll focus more on the home-related issues here, because you have more control over those risks. As far as foods that cause illness go, slightly more than half are caused by animal products (meat, eggs, milk, seafood, etc) and just under half by plant-related products. Risks from animal products come from three main sources:

               -Contaminated products: There’s no way around it. Animals poop, and feces are the single most significant source of foodborne illnesses. The US has a load of regulations designed to help keep contaminants out of meat, poultry, dairy, and seafood products, but it happens sometimes, and these products can carry those contaminants within them.

               -Improper storage: Animal-based foods tend to be rich in all the nutrients that bacteria need to grow and multiply. Storing them at refrigerator or freezer temps helps to keep those bacteria from reproducing and getting to dangerous levels.

               -Cross-contamination: Meats can be inherently safer in that they tend to be cooked to a temperature that will kill most disease-causing organisms. But if you allow those organisms to be transferred to a food that isn’t cooked the same way, you could be creating the conditions for disease to occur.

Vegetable products come with the same three basic risks. There are more and different ways for produce to become contaminated before it gets to your refrigerator or countertop. Generally speaking, fresh plant foods are “alive,” with natural defense mechanisms that help keep contaminants out. Improper storage can compromise these defenses. Pre-sliced fresh vegetables and fruits have also had their natural defenses compromised. Both types can also carry contaminants on their surface, and anything pre-sliced has also been handled more than whole produce with more opportunities for contamination. For all of these reasons, melons and leafy greens tend to be the most common fruits and veggies associated with outbreaks of foodborne illness.

The risks I outlined above are why lowering your risk of foodborne illness can be summed up in two general rules: know where your food comes from (as much as you can) and follow good food safety practices when you are preparing your food.

Know where your food comes from.

There are no guarantees in life, but knowing the source of your food helps in a few ways. Generally, US-produced foods will be safer than foods from South and Central American sources due to stronger enforcement of food safety laws and also stronger worker protections. The benefits of food safety laws speak for themselves. The benefits of worker protections mean that it’s less likely that a US farm worker will feel compelled to take shortcuts like not washing their hands after using the restroom in order to meet work schedules. Foods imported from Europe and Australia are generally safer for the same reasons.

If possible, it can be helpful to know what farm your food comes from. It’s usually easier if your food is coming from a smaller farm, as many of the larger ones supply to large national retailers over a huge area. If you know the farm, you can verify their food safety practices for yourself. And while small farms are not necessarily safer than large farms, smaller farms tend to sell closer to their own communities and can train and monitor their smaller labor force more closely.

One thing you can look for in grocery stores is greenhouse-grown produce. Greenhouses maintain tightly controlled environments, and many of the sources of contamination that can affect field-grown produce simply aren’t there. In addition, greenhouses usually use far fewer pesticides (for the same reason), they usually have less human contact on the produce, and plant health is always a major priority. Finally, greenhouse grown produce usually has some kind of label that will tell you it was grown in a greenhouse.

Knowing your food sources applies to restaurants too: food establishments are subject to inspections that you can look up and pay attention to. Restaurants also have reputations in your community for a reason. That gas station sushi might seem like a good idea if you’re in a hurry, but you probably know better.

Good food safety practices

Preventing food contamination in your kitchen boils down to a few simple steps that are, at the same time, some of the most important things you can do to keep you and your family safe from foodborne illness.

               -Wash your hands. Always wash your hands after handling raw meat, shellfish, and eggs, and BEFORE you handle any foods that aren’t going to be cooked. And if I also need to tell you to wash your hands after using the restroom, you have bigger worries than cantaloupe.

               -Avoid cross contamination. Don’t use the same knives, cutting boards, or other tools to cut meat and vegetables, and wash these implements or kitchen surfaces with hot water and soap after they come in contact with raw meat or eggs.

               -Wash vegetables, don’t wash meats. Unless a vegetable is marked as “Washed, ready to eat,” you should usually rinse them prior to eating. Rinse with cold, running water to wash contaminants off the fruits and veggies instead of dunking them in a sink full of standing water, which might simply spread contaminants around. This is especially important for leafy greens. The CDC recommends not washing meats, as you are simply increasing the risk of cross-contamination. (This is the last we’ll talk about meat and animal products. If you want more best practices, check out the CDC Website (insert link))

               -Store your produce properly. Cool temperatures help keep bacteria and other pathogens from multiplying. In addition, most fruits and vegetables are still “alive” after harvest like we said above. Storing vegetables at the proper temperature and humidity helps keep the natural defense mechanisms of these fruits and veggies healthy and operating properly. This is the same reason that sliced or chopped fruits and vegetables go bad more quickly than whole ones.

I hope that provides a quick, simple overview of the current food safety scare, and also what you can do to help protect yourself and your family from foodborne illnesses. Let us know if you have any questions or comments!