What are your handling practices regarding raw poultry, eggs, etc. and how afraid of salmonella are you? Also, how prevalent do you think the knowledge of salmonella is? Do you know of anyone (in the developed world) who doesn’t seem to know or worry abut it?
I ask because someone I know handles chicken with bare hands and doesn’t wash the counter, utensils,or her hands before handling cooked food. I tried to explain that this could cause illness, but she didn’t want to listen to me (I always do it this way, blah blah).
Personally, I clean the cutting board, counter, and utensils with bleach, I wear gloves, and I wash my hands before and after handling things that could have salmonella, but I have worked in the food industry for years so I am in the habit.
You take a lot more precautions than I do. There are no gloves or bleach involved for me. I just keep everything reasonably clean and cook the food long enough. Count me as one that doesn’t really worry about it although I know it can be bad under the right circumstances.
I’ll wash my hands and wipe down the counter after handling raw food (whether chicken, bacon, beef or whatever) but I don’t go Auto-Claving the knives and cutting boards.
I guess I’m not that afraid of it. Maybe I should be, but I cook my food pretty well and have access to healthcare so it’s not at the front of my mind when I’m cooking beyond general not-grossness.
Like Shagnasty, I don’t bother with gloves or bleach. I just wash my hands frequently throughout the prep process, and wash the surfaces and utensils with dish detergent and hot water when I am done.
I try not to be paranoid about germs, and thus far this attitude has served me well.
I’ve been inflicted twice by it, count me in the “against” column. I think both times were from commercially prepared food - not my kitchen.
I try to wash my hands between handling meat & veggies when preparing food, I use a different cutting board and the meat one goes in the dishwasher after dinner. I usually hand-wash the veggie one. (All the cutting boards are plastic, not wood, too).
I’m more relaxed than any of the posters so far. Much more relaxed. I’ve never gotten sick from it, nor have any of my family members.
When I’m cooking for “outsiders” I am more careful out of consideration for their feelings, but I am not worried about making them sick.
Forgot to add: I do use gloves for some meat preparation, but only because the feel of raw meat has been totally grossing me out lately. Hamburger meat, in particular. And raw chicken. (shudder!)
I’m somewhat relaxed about it. I don’t sweat it if everything that’s touching the cutting board and knife and such is going to be cooked. If it isn’t, I do use a different cutting board and wash my knife. I wash my hands after I touch raw chicken, but that’s because it’s nasty, not because of salmonella.
I have used raw eggs in the past, but not in applications where my father would be eating the results.
I wash my hands after handling chicken before I touch anything else, but that’s about it. I don’t use gloves and I don’t use bleach. It’s never really concerned me that much, but I’m in the “Germs are good for you” camp.
I wash my my hands after touching raw chicken. If I touch other ingredients or reuse the knife or cutting board, it would only be for other ingredients getting thoroughly cooked, like going in a stew. I also check the temperature if I roast chicken. No gloves or bleach are involved. I buy pasteurized eggs so I don’t consider those a salmonella hazard.
I have had food poisoning, not sure if it was salmonella, and am firmly in the “not a fan” camp.
I hope your friend doesn’t bring stuff to potlucks [shudder].
The reason that folk can get away with such poor practices as mentioned here, is that for the most part, cooked food is eaten very soon after final preparation, it doesn’t give much time for salmonella to grow.
This is the absolute only reason that some of the previous posters have not had food poisoning - its not some fantastic immune response, its not because the precautions the OP takes are unnecessary (they very much are necassary)
Folk think they know better, but actually they don’t. The only reason they avoid food poisoning is not because of some innate ability, or they know best, or a good immune system, they do not get ill because of sheer luck and its luck because they don’t actually understand how they managed not to cause themselves food poisoning.
There is a huge amount of ignorance about food safety, people attribute not getting food poisoning to mean that the precautions taken in the food dindustry are just ‘health and safety gone mad’.
I will add, gloves are actually not much use as a food safety precaution, they are only any good for folk who are asymptomatic carriers of salmonella where it prevent those people from contaminating food, gloves can create a microclimate within them that allows food poisoning bacteria to multiply, gloves need to be washed just as frequently as hands.
Okay, I’m not saying there are no germs, but doesn’t cooking the food kill the salmonella? I handle raw food that is served raw very rarely. If I’m making chicken or hamburger, it’s being cooked!
I’m big on separation of raw meat from everything else. And on hand-washing after handling it. And careful on cooking chicken thoroughly (although not overcooking it, dammit!). That’s it. I’m sure my behaviour and cooking seems OCD-ish to some people, and would seem horrifyingly risky to others. That tells me I’ve got it about right.
I wash my hands, the cutting board, the counters, and everything that has contacted raw meat – don’t use bleach or gloves, and I use separate cutting boards for meat and vegetables. However, I do consume raw eggs in some situations. I have a question – is salmonella risk different/greater now than say 20 years ago? I have no idea why it would or would not be, just a question. We grew up drinking raw eggs fairly regularly in the form of eggnog-- eggs, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and some sugar blended in the blender – yum – and we never got sick, that I know of, from doing it.
A common infection path is touching meat and then handling lettuce or some other uncooked vegetable. That’s why one of the best things you can do is wash your hands after handling the meat.
Yes, cooking kills the bacteria that causes Salmonella.
Undercooking meat, of course, is risky but not usually on whole meats (like a chicken or turkey). Salmonella is a surface bacteria so unless it’s ground into the meat, like hamburger, then cooking the surface of the meat kills its most-likely lurking area.
That one reason I switch cutting boards for meat/veggies - it’s the transfer to the veggies that’s dangerous.
I wash my hands and the cutting board in between raw meat and something that’s not going to be cooked with it. I don’t worry about eggs, though. I eat raw cookie dough and real egg nog when I feel like it.
