You’d better watch out for food poisoning

The merriest  and “buying-est” and “eating-est”  season of all is upon us. So, eat, drink, and be merry, but be very wary as the incidence of food poisoning rises during the holidays.

While we have no control over the food we eat outside our homes, we can ensure safe food handling at home through these four easy steps from homefoodsafety.org:

1. Wash. Proper handwashing may eliminate a large chunk of  food poisoning and significantly reduce the spread of the common cold and flu.

2. Separate. Use two cutting boards: one strictly to cut raw meat, poultry, and seafood; the other for ready-to-eat foods like breads and vegetables.

3. Cook. Use a food thermometer to make sure meat is thoroughly cooked. It’s the only reliable way to ensure safety and to determine the doneness of cooked meats, poultry, egg dishes, and leftovers.

4. Refrigerate. Refrigerate foods quickly (as soon as you arrive home from the supermarket) and at a proper temperature to slow the growth of bacteria and prevent food poisoning.

Still our best bet against disease-causing germs is proper handwashing. But what really is proper handwashing? I came across this feature on “The science of handwashing: The real score” by Dr. Manuel Garcia published in Food Safety Trends that dishes out life-saving tips. Yes, there is a science to handwashing and Dr. Garcia shares some really handy tips.

First off, did you know that about 50,000 bacteria per square inch inhabit the hand?  There are some 150 different species of bacteria, most of which are part of the normal flora of the skin while a minority may be associated with disease sitting on a person’s hands.

Only proper double fingertip handwashing can remove germs from a surface (take double note). World-famous food safety guru Dr. Pete Snyder says that an effective handwashing should involve friction and dilution. Friction means scrubbing hand, particularly the fingertips, vigorously with soap and a hand brush to dislodge the germs adhering to the skin surface. Scrub for 20 seconds (minimum or the time it takes to finish the Happy Birthday song). Dilution means rinsing with copious water to wash away dislodged microbes. Rinse and soap hands (this time without the brush) up to elbows for another 20 seconds. Rinse again with the elbows down. Wipe with clean single-use paper towel (use paper towel, too, to shut off the faucet or to open the door; never use your bare hands).

Did you know that double fingertip handwashing plus wiping with a single-use clean paper towel can remove up to one million bacteria?

Did you know that food safety experts discourage the use of antibacterial soap (what?!?!) because of possible development of antimicrobial resistance of surface contaminants?

Did you know that the water temperature does not really matter? What matters is how much and how long you wash to remove the dreaded germs.

Did you know that after wiping properly, you may still retain in your fingertips 1/1,000,000 of a gram = 1 microgram bacteria?

As you walk out the door, help yourself to the hand sanitizer. Alcohol-based sanitizers kill 99.9 percent of bacteria on hands 30 seconds after application.

Just as we learned back in kindergarten, clean (little) hands are not only good to see, they will also protect us against disease-causing germs that are all around us.