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We are exposed to harmful bugs every day. Most of the time we don't get sick unless we are already ill, very young, very old, or immune compromised. We all take our chances. If our systems are already used to these bugs, chances are we have built up immunity and are less likely to be harmed by them.
Some of the people with the worst reactions are the germ o phobes! I think we protect ourselves in the long run by continued exposure!
During the brief time I taught school, some of the boys would talk about their work in local restaurants and some of what they did. Apparently, it depended on the manager's attitude. Often the manager made it clear there was to be no funny business, but, some managers didn't mind if the food was tinkered with in a negative way. I mainly learned not to go to one restaurant because it was permissible to mess with the food. Not talking about where I live now.
I would only be influenced not to eat in a restaurant if there was publicity about the cleanliness or something along that line. As far as I know, I've never been ill from anything due to eating out.
My husband says that most restaurants know that if they kept poisoning people, people won't eat there anymore. So, most owners know that it is in their best interests to keep the place clean and properly store perishable and non-perishable food.
Certified Food Managers know how to purchase, store, and serve food. They do this for 2 basic reasons: prevent profit loss due to food spoilage and prevent revenue loss from being sued. It all depends how vested the Manager is in the financial health of the business.
We rarely ever eat out and prepare most foods from scratch. My experience in behind the scenes include: (1) a high priced Italian restaurant (2) a frozen food manufacturer (3) military dining facility (4) and a very fancy high-priced fund raiser with the top chefs in a major city preparing the foods. Most clean and safe would be the military dining facility, next would be the frozen food manufacturer, next would be the high-priced Italian restaurant and last would be the top chefs preparation. What I saw and learned............... There are a lot of tricks that can be used to mask food that should be thrown out. I saw ham cut from bones and the bones thrown in white plastic food grade cans sitting on the floor that sat there for more than 8 hours and I thought they were trash, ah, no - they thought I was crazy. It wasn't me.
I generally do not concern over E.coli in food because I generally have my meat cooked to the appropriate temperatures. I would be more concerned with foods we eat that aren't heated, such as vegetables that are grown next to a cattle farm. The runoff from cattle feces is all it takes to infect the vegetables and eventually the salads people prepare.
Peanuts aren't actually nuts, but legumes rather, because they are grown underground. These also become infected with E.coli, but they are treated by roasting to a temperature that should be adequate to kill off the e.coli. This doesn't always work as we tend to here about large numbers of peanut butter recalls from all the brands (organic or not). Thus I usually stick with nut butters, because they are grown on tree branches and would not come into contact with e.coli from runoff like peanuts.
Because e.coli has no warning sign anyone can become a statistic.
I generally do not concern over E.coli in food because I generally have my meat cooked to the appropriate temperatures. I would be more concerned with foods we eat that aren't heated, such as vegetables that are grown next to a cattle farm. The runoff from cattle feces is all it takes to infect the vegetables and eventually the salads people prepare.
Peanuts aren't actually nuts, but legumes rather, because they are grown underground. These also become infected with E.coli, but they are treated by roasting to a temperature that should be adequate to kill off the e.coli. This doesn't always work as we tend to here about large numbers of peanut butter recalls from all the brands (organic or not). Thus I usually stick with nut butters, because they are grown on tree branches and would not come into contact with e.coli from runoff like peanuts.
Because e.coli has no warning sign anyone can become a statistic.
I do get concerned about the peanut butter and keep an ear open for any recalls. They seem to get recalled quite a bit. Do you have any recommendations with the nut butters, brands, etc?
Nope. Not paranoid at all. I eat out all the time. I can't live my life in fear of every little thing.
Exactly. If you consider how many times the 300+ million Americans eat out every year and how rarely we get sick from it, it is actually quite safe to eat out. I would die of boredom from having to eat my own cooking 365 days/year before I'd die from E. coli
Certified Food Managers know how to purchase, store, and serve food. They do this for 2 basic reasons: prevent profit loss due to food spoilage and prevent revenue loss from being sued. It all depends how vested the Manager is in the financial health of the business.
miss good point,,, one outbreak can close a business
most restaurants have a haccp program- a formalized thorough sanitation program/procedures
and most employees have to go thru extensive sanitation training
I use to give sanitation seminars for foodservice employees
the usda inspectors and fsis have very strict guidelines
in some states I think you can look up recent health/sanitation inspections on restaurants
Only thing I consciously watch out for is drinking craft beer on tap in my suburb. Thinking I must be the only one not drinking Coors Light or Bud Light around here. Because nobody else is drinking the craft beer the keg gets a little skunky or the tap lines get dirty. Don't get full out food poisoning but don't feel that great the next day. So stick to craft beer in bottles at the few restaurants I frequent around my house.
Worst case of food poisoning I've had from eating out was getting frozen custard at a local Culver's. Won't ever eat there again.
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