Derald wrote:
Farm1 wrote:

Very US centric Billy - Feedlot, corn diet for humans, put cattle on grass
feed. No wonder David's not heard of it.

I wonder why the expert doesn't mention the simple expedients of washing
hands and foodstuffs prior to preparation along with actually cooking food as
the most effective defenses against ingesting live bacteria. Refraining from
eating raw vegetables of unknown origin is easy enough to do, it seems to me. A
sad necessity in some parts of the world but things ain't what they used to
be....

yep, make sure things are washed and cooked and
not cross contaminated (by using the same knife or
cutting board when switching from meat to veggie
preparation and washing hands in between).

however, for fresh veggies, it takes just one
splash to contaminate an item and then once the
bacteria are on the surface the further processing
might not remove them. including washing. bacteria
form colonies covered by films that prevent easy
destruction. the only reason more people don't
get sick is that the bacteria are mostly harmless
anyways.

the trouble is that produce is often washed when
harvested and then processed, the wash water
gets contaminated (from animal manure or human poo
if the people don't wash their hands after they poo)
and then it contaminates whatever goes through that
same water later.

most home growers don't wash their veggies in
the same water over and over again and if they
don't wash their hands after pooing they are only
likely infecting a few people and not potentially
thousands of people.

as the scale of production goes up the scale of
safety and testing should also go up, but sadly it
has not and a lot of people are sickened by it
and the costs of those illnesses are passed on to
all of us via high rates of insurance and health
care costs, disability, etc.


Which reminds me of a pure silliness: In the mid 1960's, insecticide
residues on vegetables was the hysteria du jour among the then-stylish
generation of USAsians. On one occasion my wife and I dined with a woman who
announced that she had washed the ingredients with dishwashing liquid before
preparing the salad. True.

another bubbly sort. did you notice?


songbird