This past weekend, Reuters reported the death of an elder woman in Minnesota due to Salmonella infection. She is the seventh person in the U.S. to die from this bacteria. As of last Wednesday, 491 people have been infected during the current outbreak. And, 125 products have been recalled by the FDA, including cookies, crackers, ice cream and even some pet foods.

Below are some ways to avoid possible infection:

1. Washing your hands and kitchen surfaces before working with any food may seem obvious, but many people forget.
2. Wash your hands and counter tops or cutting boards in between working with vegetables and raw meats to avoid cross-contamination.
   
3. Antibacterial soap or simple soap and water work well.
   
4. Use fresh, clean dish towels and change often.
5. Thoroughly wash all fruit, even if you are not going to eat the skin.
6. Any fruit that might touch the ground, such as tomatoes, is susceptible to Salmonella. So, spend even more time scrubbing these fruits.
   
7. Cut off any vines or parts that were attached to the plant. When eating tomatoes, make sure to cut off and discard the hard nib on the top of the fruit, because the bacteria can implant itself there easily.
   
8. Take off the outer leaves of cabbage and lettuce, and the outer skin of onions.
9. When baking, make sure to thoroughly cook the baked foods before eating them. Salmonella usually comes from raw eggs. Do not eat raw cookie dough no matter how tempting it may be!
   
10. Salmonella poisoning often occurs from poultry and raw eggs that haven't been properly cooked, or frozen and not properly cooked, or left sitting too long after being cooked.
11. Got pets? Make sure after handling them you wash your hands.

You better think twice next time you bite into what appears to be a nutritious Luna bar. The Los Angeles Times recently had an article stating that Clif Bar and Co. announced a recall of Clif and Luna brand bars that contain peanut butter. The decision was based on the FDA's announcement that traces of Salmonella Typhimurium contamination have been found in a plant owned by Peanut Corp. of America. The plant which manufactures peanut butter and peanut paste supplies companies nationwide. To find out what other food products have been affected, you can view an online list put together by the FDA.

While food shopping yesterday, I noticed a shelf full of Luna bars. I can't help but to feel mildly skeptical of the FDA. Just how seriously should we take this Salmonella scare? After doing some online research yesterday, I found out that there are approximately 40,000 cases of Salmonella infection reported every year in the U.S. In the summer of 2008, there was a Salmonella outbreak that seemed to have been caused by fresh jalapeño and serrano peppers from Mexico, raw tomatoes, and fresh cilantro. The highest amount of cases occured in Texas and New Mexico.

Originally, I thought that Salmonella was only present in raw meat, in particular poultry. In turns out that any foods that have been in contact with raw meat could also contain the bacteria. I'm just perplexed as to how it could have ended up in this peanut butter plant. Does it say something about the sanitary conditions of the plant or could it have happened anywhere?