Eating Dangerously Page 14

  The rule under President Obama requires egg producers to make sure eggs are not contaminated inside the shell, either through pasteurization or other measures. It also requires refrigeration during storage and transportation.

  Half of all egg outbreaks in the last decade originated in restaurants or places where food was served to a crowd, according to research by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The largest egg outbreaks happened in prisons, where on average, 143 people were sick at once.30

  The reputation of eggs was severely damaged in 2010 when hundreds of Americans grew ill after eating eggs from Wright County Egg Farm in Iowa. FDA inspectors found Salmonella in multiple spots on the farm, and it wasn’t hard to see why. Manure was piled four to eight feet high in some places. The hen houses were rampant with rodents and flies, alive and dead. The owners of those egg farms left the business and sold the operations to new companies willing to take on the cleanup of not only the farms but also the reputation of the so-called perfect food.

  These days, eggs are refrigerated at supermarkets. But it wasn’t that many years ago that they were sold at room temperature. The change was the result of researchers figuring out that any Salmonella on the outside or the inside of the egg grows rapidly when it isn’t cold. Keep eggs in the coldest parts of the refrigerator, not the door. And if your kids must lick the spoon while mixing a cake, use an egg substitute or an egg in the shell that is pasteurized. Look for cartons labeled pasteurized and with a “P” stamped on each shell. Food safety experts also suggest using a meat thermometer when cooking egg dishes, just to make certain they’ve reached 160 degrees.

  Pork

  The same parasite associated with cats and, in particular, kitty litter boxes, lives in improperly cooked pork. It’s called toxoplasma gondii, and it’s among the deadliest of foodborne diseases.

  Toxo, for short, is the “quiet, silent disease that nobody knows about,” said Dr. Morris with the University of Florida. The foodborne version is estimated to kill about 330 people in this country every year.31 It causes miscarriage and severe birth defects that can lead to lifetime disability.

  Surprisingly, there is no federal regulation of toxo.

  The owners of large swine herds in this country have, fortunately, paid attention to toxo and are testing to make sure it is not present in their herds. There is no requirement by the USDA that they must do this, however. Smaller American operators and those in other countries that ship pork to the United States are less likely to keep up with rigorous testing programs to ensure their meat is safe. South American pork, in particular, has a bad reputation for toxo. Ideally, you would avoid buying South American pork chops and pork roast, but the problem is that they typically aren’t slapped with a label that says they are South American.

  “You have no idea. You are clueless,” Morris said. “You buy it in a sealed, wrapped package and there is no indication of where it comes from. You have to take it on faith.”

  Highly processed pork, including bacon, is safer than more natural cuts, though less healthy and full of fat and sodium.

  The most accurate tests for detecting toxo in slaughtered hogs take several weeks, too long to make them a suitable requirement for meat that is headed to stores for consumption, according to the USDA. Besides, federal officials point out, proper cooking, freezing, irradiation, and processing with enzymes kill toxo in slaughtered swine.

  Rarely is death by toxo in pork a front-page news story. That’s because the pathogen is not normally associated with widespread outbreak; one person typically falls ill at a time. Also, the health impacts do not manifest for months or even years later.

  It’s estimated that more than sixty million Americans are walking around with the toxo parasite in their bodies, but only a small percentage of us are susceptible to severe illness and death.32 Pregnant women are on that list, which is why doctors have long recommended that expectant mothers don’t clean the kitty litter box.

  Here’s the most important message regarding pork: eat it well done. If you’re not sure, use a meat thermometer to make sure the thickest part of the meat is at least 145 degrees. Wash your hands after touching raw pork. Disinfect countertops touched by raw pork.

  Oysters and Fish

  Seafood sickened more than a half-million Americans from 1998 to 2008 and killed ninety-four people.33 In the category of food that comes from the ocean—or, in many cases, fish farms—tuna and oysters jump out as the most dangerous.

  Tuna was linked to nearly 270 outbreaks during a ten-year period.34 The most common cause was a toxin called scombrotoxin, which comes from decomposition bacteria and continues to grow as a dead fish decays. The toxin is not stopped by freezing, cooking, or smoking. So eat tuna only when it’s fresh and hasn’t been left out too long in the hot sun. In humans, scombrotoxin causes abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea, heart palpitations, and loss of vision.

  Many of the outbreaks caused by tuna originated in restaurants, likely because people are more likely to eat fresh tuna in a restaurant than cooking it at home.

  In July 2012, 425 people were struck with Salmonella poisoning after eating frozen raw yellowfin tuna. The illness was serious enough to send fifty-five people to the hospital, though no one was killed.35 The frozen tuna was used in restaurants to make sushi, and victims of the food poisoning reported to health officials that they had ordered sushi made of spicy tuna from a Japanese steakhouse, among other restaurants. The outbreak spanned twenty-eight states.

  At the opposite end of the popularity scale from leafy greens—which many Americans eat multiple times per week—are oysters, which make up an extremely small percentage of the U.S. diet. Yet they cause way more than their fair share of outbreaks—about two hundred per year. Raw or undercooked oysters can make people sick when they are contaminated with norovirus or Vibrio.

  Oysters are sometimes harvested in waters contaminated with norovirus, which survives all the way into your intestines if you eat the delicacy raw. In one 2012 outbreak, fourteen people who ate oysters at the same New Orleans restaurant fell ill with norovirus.36 The outbreak caused health officials to shut down a major oyster harvesting area and recall all oysters from the area.

  More dangerous than norovirus is Vibrio, a bacteria that causes severe diarrhea and cramps in otherwise healthy people. For those with compromised immune systems, Vibrio can infect the bloodstream and cause fever, chills, decreased blood pressure, blistering skin sores, and death. Bloodstream infections are fatal about half of the time. Most cases occur in the Gulf states, which is why some food safety experts advise consumers to avoid oysters raised in the Gulf of Mexico. Nearly all Gulf Coast oysters are contaminated with Vibrio in the summer months, when the bacteria is rampant in the waters off Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and other neighboring states, according to one study.37 In 2009, Vibrio killed ten people who ate raw oysters and severely sickened sixteen others.38 Oysters from the Atlantic had been considered safer until 2011, when two people fell ill after eating some of the shellfish harvested off the coast of Massachusetts. Several more were sickened by Vibrio in 2012, and the cases were linked to Massachusetts oysters. Until 2011, it was thought that the temperature of the Atlantic was too cold for Vibrio to survive.

  The CDC recommends that people with compromised immunity, especially those with liver disease, avoid raw oysters and other raw shellfish—clams and mussels—altogether. Boil shellfish until the shell pops open—and then boil it for five more minutes. If the shell doesn’t open, don’t eat it. Don’t let juices from raw shellfish drip around the kitchen, and if they do, disinfect.

  Only heat kills the bacteria. No matter how sophisticated you are about eating oysters on the half-shell on a bed of ice, you can’t tell if they are contaminated by smelling or tasting them. Also, dousing oysters with hot sauce—no matter how spicy—does not kill toxins. Neither does alcohol.

  Beef

  Don’t
eat pink hamburgers. The manure staining a cow’s hide sometimes ends up on the outside of the meat during slaughter, and when beef is ground into hamburger, that fecal matter can end up in the burger. Many cattle also have Salmonella or E. coli bacteria in their guts, which comes with them to the slaughterhouse. And one package of ground hamburger could have come from dozens of different cows, all shipped from feed lots to the same slaughter house and processing plant. Packers buy “trim” from all over the world and grind it into massive, mixed-up batches of beef.

  Bad beef sent more than three thousand people to the hospital in this country in a ten-year period and was responsible for the deaths of fifty-five, according to the CDC.39 Those are scary numbers, although they are far lower than hospitalizations and deaths caused by poultry or pork.

  Beef safety has improved dramatically in the United States since the terror brought on by the Jack in the Box scare of 1993, when hundreds were sickened with E. coli O157:H7 and four children died. It was a wake-up call: American children died because they ate undercooked hamburgers.

  Documents discovered during the investigation revealed that Jack in the Box was undercooking its burgers and had been warned by local health departments and employees.40 But company officials thought cooking burgers to the required 155 degrees—hot enough to kill harmful bacteria—made the burgers too tough.

  In 1994, the USDA banned the sale of raw ground beef found to have E. coli O157:H7, meaning packing plants were required to test for it. In 2012, the federal agency added six strains of E. coli to the banned list for raw meat.

  The tests don’t cover every pound of meat sold, but a sample of beef that turns up positive results in recalls or impounding.

  Cooking beef properly kills the bacteria. The USDA recommends 160 degrees. Left to sit in temperatures above 40 degrees or below 140 degrees—the “danger zone”—bacteria in the meat multiplies. University studies have found that cooking a burger until it’s no longer pink does not necessarily mean it reached 160 degrees, so it’s best to use a meat thermometer.

  Ground beef is implicated more often in outbreaks than steak. That’s because the inside of a steak is considered sterile. The exception is when meat is mechanically tenderized with needles, a process used by some restaurants to improve the cut of meat and, in some cases, infuse it with flavor. In recent years, several outbreaks have been linked to tenderized steak. Problem is, they are rarely advertised as such, so ask the server. If you choose a tenderized steak off a menu, or one that promises the infused flavors of bourbon or mesquite, ask for it well done.

  Tomatoes and Peppers, the Vine Vegetables

  Salmonella can invade a tomato through its roots, flourishing stubbornly inside the vine-grown fruit. Only cooking is likely to kill it. In the growing process, Salmonella bacteria can invade through the plant’s roots or flowers, or even tiny cracks on the tomato’s skin.

  All types of tomatoes—vine ripened, grapes, cherry—have been blamed for food-illness outbreaks across the county. In particular, 2005 and 2006 were rough years, but tomatoes contaminated with Salmonella are implicated in illnesses each year.

  In 2005 and 2006, tomatoes caused four major outbreaks of Salmonella, sickening hundreds of people. One study counted more than thirty outbreaks linked to tomatoes since 1990, about half of them due to Salmonella.41 In 2008, a major food-illness outbreak was initially pinned on tomatoes, and the FDA warned Texas and New Mexico residents to stop eating certain types of raw tomatoes. Federal investigators could not pinpoint a specific type of tomato, but they knew many of the sick had reported eating tomatoes. Or rather, salsa. The investigation took months. In the end, after 1,442 people in forty-three states were ill, the FDA found Salmonella on a jalapeño pepper and a Serrano pepper grown in Mexico.42 Federal investigators also found Salmonella in the farm’s irrigation water.

  More than 280 people were hospitalized.

  In December 2011, the FDA announced a recall of fresh, Mexican-grown jalapeño and Serrano chili peppers that tested positive for Salmonella and were shipped to stores in California, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and Canada.43

  Dried peppers aren’t exempt from Salmonella. In October 2011, a California company recalled 1,800 jars of Su-nun brand crushed red pepper because of possible contamination. Routine testing by the USDA found Salmonella in a sample.44

  Food safety experts aren’t suggesting Americans strike tomatoes and peppers—the staples of salad, pizza, and salsa—from their diet. But people with weakened immunity—cancer patients on chemotherapy, for example—should consider avoiding fresh tomatoes and peppers. And restaurants should follow suggested guidelines from the CDC to minimize bacteria transfer during food preparation.

  Foodborne illness investigations show tomatoes are likely tainted back at the farm, not in the kitchen. But the way people handle tomatoes could lead to more “germ growth,” according to the FDA. Without proper handling, tomatoes with Salmonella could contaminate nearby tomatoes.

  People should keep fresh produce, especially tomatoes, away from other food. Wash them in running water before eating them, but don’t soak them in water. If you save part of a cut tomato, keep it in the refrigerator—but not for longer than a few hours. The FDA also recommends restaurant workers wear gloves when handling tomatoes.

  Melons

  The cantaloupe outbreak that killed thirty-three people catapulted melons to a national concern. A year later, Salmonella on cantaloupe killed three people in Kentucky and sent ninety-four others to hospitals in various states.45 The melons’ scarred reputation means that some people still walk right past them in the produce section or farmers’ market. But melons—cantaloupe, honeydew, and watermelon—have long been on the radar of food safety authorities.

  Melons, in fact, are among the most troublesome foods in the produce system.

  Cantaloupe and other melons made up 16 percent of all produce-related outbreaks in a twelve-year period studied by the FDA and the CDC. That was before the deadly 2011 outbreak of Listeria in Colorado, and the 2012 Salmonella outbreak linked to an Indiana farm. Of the 406 incidents of food poisoning in Colorado from 1998 to 2010, cantaloupe or honeydew melon were suspected in eight—putting melon in the top ten foods most often suspected of contamination in that state, behind ground beef, lettuce, chicken, and sushi.

  “Cantaloupe has been problematical,” said David Gombas, senior vice president for food safety and technology at the United Fresh Produce Association in Washington, D.C.46

  The pocked surface of a cantaloupe provides plenty of crevices for bacteria to latch on. Food safety experts recommend scrubbing the surface of a cantaloupe with soap and water before slicing through one. That step could help prevent foodborne illness—unless the cantaloupe was contaminated on the inside.

  Research suggests the sweet nutrients inside cantaloupes entice pathogens on the surface of the fruit to come inside through tiny nicks or cuts. Irrigation water containing Salmonella could contaminate the surface of the melon, and perhaps get inside through openings on the surface, according to research published in the International Journal of Food Microbiology.47 Researchers want to study that question more. If that’s the case, washing the cantaloupe’s surface isn’t going to fix the problem. Scientific opinion varies about whether Listeria or Salmonella bacteria can enter a melon through its roots.

  Experts have called for stricter guidelines regarding irrigation water for produce grown on the ground. The FDA has ordered melon farmers to institute best practices and face inspections. But consumers should remember food production starts in the dirt. “The sobering reality of all of this is our food is not sterile,” said Colorado health department microbiologist Hugh Maguire. “It may look great and taste wonderful, but it is not sterile.”

  8

  Dances with DNA, and Reconsidering Radiation

  Frankenfish. Mock meat. Genetically modified corn flakes. Irradiated radishes. Are they
a safer way to feed the world, or the largest experiment in eating ever attempted?

  Worries of tomorrow’s food come rushing upon us before we’ve even answered the worries of today. The current state of the food supply clearly has issues enough to give a shopper pause in the grocery aisle. Is there any chicken breast for sale in the store that isn’t already contaminated with Salmonella? Was that cheese pasteurized properly? Did the cantaloupe farmer use enough chlorine in the sanitary wash before shipping the melon across three states?

  While these key questions linger, digital messengers deliver the fears of tomorrow. Borne on a flood of half-read Internet links, hyperventilating cable news shows, and forwarded emails from friends who thought the “maverick” views of some local activist sounded scientific, these ominous changes in food arrive in waves of vague anxiety. Is that plant they altered in a test tube already in my cornbread? That mashup salmon breed we heard about—what was it, the Frankenfish?—is it already swimming toward our favorite sushi bar? Is there some part of a cloned animal in our cheeseburgers, or was that supposed to happen next year?

  At the same time, we hear of disturbing gaps in the government’s oversight of factory-modified foods. As of early 2011, there were 38,718 items for sale on supermarket shelves. The list of allowed chemical additives in that array of products now reaches more than ten thousand. Guess who decided many of those chemicals are “safe”? The manufacturers, and a trade association panel paid for by manufacturers. More than three thousand of those “safe” substances were deemed so by industry, bypassing a formal government decision.1