Eat Out Eat Well

food-borne illness

The Five Second Rule: Don’t Start The Countdown

By Leave a Comment

The Five Second Rule: if food falls on the floor you can safely eat it if you pick it up within five seconds.  I wrote a popular post on this last year and it’s a topic that resurfaces all of the time — recently in The New York Times.

The Truth About Five Seconds (or three, or seven)

It’s bogus!  In most cases, if bacteria are on the floor, they’ll stick to food almost immediately on contact.

Things that affect how quickly the bacteria cling are the kind of floor; the kind of food; the kind of bacteria; and how long the bacteria have been hanging around on the floor.

 

Let’s Go For Zero

A food scientist and his students at Clemson University tried to determine if the five second rule has some validity or if it’s just a bunch of bunk.

For their study, they put salmonella (as few as ten of these bacteria can cause stomach issues) on wood, tile, or carpet, and then dropped bologna on them for 5, 30, or 60 seconds. More than 99% of the bacteria were transferred nearly immediately from the wood and tile and a smaller number were transferred from the carpet. Over a number of hours, the number of bacteria that transferred decreased, but thousands per square centimeter still remained on the surfaces after 24 hours. Hundreds hung around for as long as four weeks.

 

Location, Location:  The Sidewalk Is Better Than The Kitchen Floor

Most researchers agree the important thing is not how long food takes a vacation on the floor, but where that stay is. Believe it or not, according to a professor of microbiology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and author of Germ Proof Your Kids, it may be okay to brush off and give back the gummed up bagel that your kid tossed out of the stroller. Pavement has fewer types of germs that cause illnesses than the kitchen floor — which is probably coated with health hazardous bacteria from uncooked meat and chicken juices.

 

Don’t Retrieve Food From The Kitchen Sink Either

Kitchen sinks have more germs than bathroom sinks and three-quarters of kitchen dish cloths and sponges are heavily contaminated with harmful bacteria like  E. coli and salmonella.  The bacteria, probably carried into the kitchen by food, kids, or pets, can cause diarrhea or infections with flu-like symptoms (especially dangerous for small children, the elderly, and pregnant women).  Bacteria adore the food collected in sponges used to wipe stuff up and can find a happy growing ground nestled in your sponge.

 

The Five Second Rule: A Bunch of Baloney!

By Leave a Comment

Five second rule in a WikiWorld comic.


Also the three second, eight second, and you name the number rule.  No kidding.

So why is it a bunch of baloney that when you drop a slice of bologna on the floor as you are making a sandwich for lunch, even if you reclaim it right away — certainly in three or five seconds, it still may be crawling with organisms by the time it nestles between slices of bread?

What Is The Five Second Rule?

Although not inscribed in stone, in general terms the five second rule means that if food falls on the floor you can safely eat it if you pick it up within five seconds.  There are a whole bunch of variations having to do with the length of time the food remains on the floor.  I remember one of my son’s college hockey teammates firmly holding to an eight second rule – as he snatched a post-game French fry off of the rink’s snack bar floor.  Have you ever closely looked at the floors in a hockey rink?  Even the seasoned coach turned green.

A Zero Second Rule?

A food scientist and his students at the food science and human nutrition department at Clemson University set out to determine if the rule has some validity or if it’s just a bunch of bunk. Horror of horrors, they found that bacteria are transferred from tabletops and floors to food in five seconds and that the five second rule doesn’t apply when it comes to eating food that has fallen on the floor.

Making a strong case for a zero second rule, they found that salmonella and other bacteria can live up to four weeks on dry surfaces and that they are immediately transferred to food.

Location, Location:  The Sidewalk Is Better Than The Kitchen Floor

Their findings are in conflict with previous research by Connecticut College students who scattered apple slices and Skittles on the dining hall and snack bar floors and let them reside there for five, 10, 30, and 60 seconds. The apple slices picked up bacteria after one minute and nearly five minutes scooted by before the Skittles became contaminated.

Most researchers agree the important thing is not how long food takes a vacation on the floor, but where that stay is. Believe it or not, according to a professor of microbiology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and author of Germ Proof Your Kids, it may be okay to brush off and give back the gummed up bagel that your kid tossed out of the stroller. Pavement has fewer types of germs that cause illnesses than the kitchen floor which is probably laden with health hazardous bacteria from uncooked meat and chicken juices.

SocialDieter Tip:

A universally applied five second rule for dropped food is bogus.  Food can get contaminated with health hazardous bacteria very quickly.  There is some dropped food wiggle room depending mostly on where the dropped food lands.  Amazingly, food dropped outside, as long as it has dropped on pavement or blacktop rather than on the soil in a chicken coop or an animal pasture, is generally safer than food dumped on your kitchen floor.

And, FYI:

  • 100 billion: bacteria in our mouths
  • 100 trillion: bacteria in our gastrointestinal tracts
  • 2.5 billion: bacteria found in one gram of garden soil
  • 7.2 billion: germs in the average kitchen sponge
  • 25,000: germs per square inch on an office telephone
  • 49: germs per square inch on a toilet seat

Handle Food Carefully – Or Run A Big Risk

By Leave a Comment

How You Handle Food Really Matters

Here’s a great big reason why paying attention to how you handle food is so important:

Just give ‘em  (bacteria) the conditions they like:  warmth, moisture, and nutrients, and boy will they grow.   A single bacterium that divides every half hour can result in 17 million offspring in 12 hours.

Putting food in the refrigerator or freezer will stop most bacteria from growing —  except for Listeria (found in lunch meats, hot dogs, and unpasteurized soft cheese), and Yersinia enterocolitica (found in undercooked pork and unpasteurized milk).  Both will grow at refrigerator temperatures. Cooking food to a temperature of 160 F will kill E. coli O157:H7. Don’t let that container of take out food hang around on the counter, either. Put it in the fridge and heat it up when you’re ready.

Safety Tips

  • Cut produce, like half a watermelon or bagged salad, should be refrigerated or surrounded by ice – don’t buy it if its not
  • Separate your raw meat, poultry, and seafood from the other food in your shopping cart and in your refrigerator – packages do leak
  • Store perishable fresh fruit and vegetables (like berries, lettuce, herbs, and mushrooms) in a clean refrigerator at a temperature of 40F or below
  • Wash your hands for 20 seconds with soap and warm water after you prepare any food
  • Wash fruit and vegetables under running water just before eating, cutting, or cooking, even if you plan to peel them. Don’t use soap (it leaves a residue). Produce washes are okay, but not necessary.
  • Scrub firm produce like melons and cucumbers with a clean produce brush and then let air dry.
  • Toss the outer leaves of heads of leafy vegetables like cabbage and lettuce.
  • Thoroughly cook sprouts. Children, elderly people, pregnant women, and people with a weakened immune system should avoid raw sprouts.
  • Drink pasteurized milk, juice, or cider.
  • Lower your pesticide exposure by 90% by avoiding the dirty dozen: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, imported grapes, carrots, and pears. Think about buying organic for the dirty dozen and conventional for the foods with the lowest levels of pesticides:  onions, avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, mango, asparagus, sweet peas, kiwi, cabbage, eggplant, papaya, watermelon, broccoli, tomatoes, and sweet potatoes (Environmental Working Group).
  • Eat locally grown food:  food is well traveled – the average mouthful has a 1400 mile journey from farm to plate. Locally raised food is fresher, closer to ripe when picked, requires less energy to get to you, and is not as likely to be treated with pesticides after harvest.
  • Wash all produce well before eating – be careful with nibbling the unwashed grapes or berries in the market or on the way home.

More information on handling produce safely

When do you toss the leftover Pad Thai (or lasagna) that’s in the fridge?

By 2 Comments

You Are Hungry!

You’re standing in front of your open refrigerator. A container here and a container there. Move them around. Wow. A Tupperware all the way in the back. Wonder what’s in it.

Take a peek. Container #1: the leftover take-out Pad Thai from five days ago. Container #2: the rest of your lasagna you brought home last night from a huge restaurant portion. Some of Mom’s really delicious stuffing from last weekend. That’s in the Tupperware.

Big question: Will you end up writhing in pain and spending the next day in the bathroom if you eat any of it?

How Long Can Food Stay Out?

According to the FDA, when you buy hot, cooked food, you should eat it right away and avoid letting it sit out at room temperature. If the food is cold, eat it within two hours of preparing it, store it in the fridge, or freeze it.

Buzz, Buzz: The Food Is Here

When food is delivered, you want to prevent any lurking potentially nasty and harmful bacteria from multiplying, so eat the food within two hours after it arrives. If you aren’t going to eat it within two hours keep it hot in an oven set at or above 200° F (93° C). Side dishes, like that delicious stuffing in the Tupperware, also have to be kept hot in the oven. Cover the food to keep it moist while you’re keeping it warm. Don’t guess at the temperature of the food. Use a food thermometer to check that the food is kept at an internal temperature of 140° F (60° C).

The Danger Zone

The FDA defines the “danger zone” as the range of temperatures at which bacteria can grow. It is usually between 40° and 140° F (4° and 60° C). To keep food safe, it’s important to keep it below or above the “danger zone.”

The 2 Hour Rule

There is a 2 Hour Rule: Throw away any perishable food (the kind that can spoil or become contaminated by bacteria if left unrefrigerated) that has bee left out at room temperature for more than two hours. When the environmental temperature is above 90° F (32° C), throw out the food after one hour.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest’s Nutrition Action Healthletter, expands on the Rules For Leftovers with what they call:

2 hours – 2 inches – 4 days

Think:

2 hours from oven to refrigerator: any leftovers should be

refrigerated or frozen within 2 hours of cooking or they should be thrown away.

2 Inches thick to cool it quick: food should be stored in containers at a shallow depth of about 2 inches or less, to speed the chilling time.

4 days in the refrigerator or freeze it: use refrigerated leftovers within 4 days with the exception of stuffing and gravy which should be used within 2 days. Reheat Solid leftovers should be reheated to 165 degrees F and liquid leftovers to a rolling boil. Whatever you don’t finish, throw out.

Do you still want that Pad Thai? Maybe some lasagna?