Another Bite From A Poisoned Apple
September 2006
Food
poisoning in one form or another has always posed a danger all
through my life; however, early on, it was the food itself, mistakenly
consumed or imbibed, that brought on illness or death. Although
it wasn't a common incidence it did happen with enough regularity
for us all to be deathly afraid of mushrooms.
As it happened
in my recall, an entire family died after a roast chicken dinner
richly stuffed with luscious mushrooms. The huge domed caps had
sprung up overnight in the moist little patch of land under the
trees in the far corner of their yard. In the 1930's being able
to afford anything beyond the occasional chicken and usual bread
and potatoes was a rarity; finding big mushrooms in your backyard
was a rare happening indeed.
Mushrooms
are not the fare for the uninformed but this neighbor was among
the few who could claim he knew the difference between poisonous
mushrooms and harmless ones. He even claimed there are some toadstools
that are not poisonous even though we all avoided them. The neighbors
didn't doubt him - he was from Europe and probably knew - but
they didn't eat with him either.
No, we didn't throw caution to the wind at our house. The sadness
we all felt was all the more so since the tragedy was avoidable.
In those days,
trichinosis was a huge threat. Any pork had to be cooked so well
is was like the heel of your shoe. As I recall, trichinosis was
from worms in the pork that, if allowed to live, would inhabit
those dining. I could probably research that but even my scant
knowledge scares me to death so, inasmuch as the threat has been
gone for over 40 years, I'll stick with what I know and continue
to cook my pork until the meat is white.
The next outbreak
I recall as happening but also being avoidable is salmonella.
I discovered the hard way that salmonella can enter an egg through
an almost invisible crack in the shell. If you use that in an
egg nog, you're in trouble. If you use it in cake batter, then
let your children lick the spoon, you're in trouble. If salmonella
takes hold, the health department takes action. Their requirements
are one week's worth of daily stool samples until they release
the family. I don't have to advise of that procedure; just don't
eat a raw egg - ever!
In subsequent
years, food poisoning arose mostly over refrigeration or maintaining
buffet food at a high enough temperature for the duration of the
party. Spaghetti sauce cools rapidly and spoils as it lowers to
room temperature. We are all very aware these days so most of
the poisoning is no longer coming from the kitchen and spreading
to the family and neighborhood.
It would seem
most poisoning lies among the sowers, the insecticides, the reapers
and the packagers. Also, careless handling, poor inspection, inadequate
machinery, poor refrigeration in shipping, and human error leading
to contamination.
With all those
possibilities, it's a wonder we haven't more outbreaks like the
e-coli virus that has killed one and made 109 ill by this writing.
The common denominator among the victims is that they all do use
pre-washed, fresh packaged, spinach. The victims are all across
the country with the greatest concentration in Wisconsin and the
possible source in California.
That's quite
a span, quite different from a patch of soil that sprouted mushrooms,
killed a family and the possibility of spreading remained in the
small circle of families near the victims.
There's a
popular restaurant with branches in almost every city in the country.
Last night, their popular appetizer was not being offered. We
asked why. "Well, there's a grower in Seattle who was using
an illegal insecticide so we decided to take all our uses of onion
off the menu - not only here but in all the restaurants under
our headquarters."
That
was both interesting and reassuring. We are being looked out for
by some watchdog with an eye for our safety as the food goes from
plant to plate. I wonder if the Seattle information came from
an inspector or a whistle blower. Either way, I'm grateful.
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