"germs" news and stories

Eating out can be a rather nasty business. Even in restaurants that exceed their state's cleanliness standards, food is generally handled by a succession of bare hands – some of them crawling with germs. Innumerable elements of the prototypical great dining experience – crowding together with friends, sharing appetizers, shaking the manager's hand at the end of an evening well-spent – are an epidemiologist's worst nightmare.

As servers, we're constantly exposed to all sorts of viruses. That's why it galls me that so many diners make the situation worse by ignoring hygiene altogether.

Of course, we can't quarantine cold-sufferers. But having the sniffles is not license to leave your wadded-up tissues all over your booth and half-sucked lozenges on your table. Why must so many diners treat linen napkins like handkerchiefs?

After some comments in my post about shrimp cocktail, I began to think about kitchen fears. Shayna covered "risky eating" in April, but what about how you run your kitchen and how you prepare your food? Are you an Alton Brown, who treats raw chicken like an infectious disease with his gloves, sterilizing, and paranoia? Are you like a Jamie Oliver, who will run ribs, chicken, and lamb through a barbecue sauce, and then run his finger through it to lick and taste? Maybe somewhere in between?

I am, by no means, going to refute the possible dangers of bacteria. Everyone's immune systems are different, and one person's healthy, bacteria-filled oasis is another's stomach-bugged hell. That being said, I'm happy to say (knock on wood) that it's never been an issue for me. In my early cooking days, I would try to keep things clean, but would always get a little lazy with my chicken/meats -- until I dated someone who looked at my kitchen practices with horror. I got more particular and careful, especially when cooking for others, but when I'm only cooking for me, I'm still fairly lax.

And I see no reason to change my habits. I've never had food poisoning, and I have only been sick a few times in the last 10 years. It's hard not to buy into the notion that exposure is great for building resistance when my lifestyle has kept me ridiculously healthy.

How about you?

And we're not talking about your mental health because you haven't looked at anything but spreadsheets for four days. We're talking about your physical health.

As you wind down your day in front of your computer sitting at your desk, take a moment and look down at your keyboard. You could be looking at something that is dirtier than the toilet seat in the bathroom down the hall. This means eating lunch in front of your computer might be a health hazard!

According to British microbiologist James Francis four of 33 keyboards he tested were potential health hazards and one had germs at a level five times higher than that found on the toilet seat.

Makes me want to dip my laptop in a bleach solution and never eat at my desk again.

Of course, that's not possible when your boss's demands are forcing you to wolf down a sandwich at your desk through lunch. Just make sure to wash your hands, don't let other co-workers touch your keyboard, and my best advice is to eat lunch with utensils, not your hands.

Source

One of the most popular and long-lived old wives' tales is known as the "5-second rule". The "rule" stipulates that food that has fallen on the floor is still safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds of it hitting the ground. It has been around for many, many years, propagating itself on school playgrounds across the country and possibly even the world. Variations exist, shortening the rule to 3 seconds or expanding it to 10, but the basic theory remains. Unfortunately, it isn't true, as the Sacramento Bee's Lisa Heyamoto found out.

While some people, from 3 to 93, will continue to believe in the truth of this tale, the reality is that most surfaces are covered with germs and bacteria and floors are no exception. Drier foods, like cookies or a bagel, are less likely to pick up unsavory particles than wetter foods, like meat and cheese. Of course, we are all coming into contact with bacteria every day, whether we're cleaning our counter with a kitchen sponge (bacteria breeding ground) or giving our pets a pat. There is very little that can be done to avoid all contact. Ms. Heyamoto reminds us not to believe that we're "safe" when we follow the rule, but that your comfort level with what your food comes into contact with is subjective. The kitchen floor? Sure. The sidewalk outside your office? Perhaps not.

You can't go wrong following the other food rule: "When in doubt, throw it out!"

Source