Putnam: Food safety important part of eating out, cooking

Have you ever had your favorite meal or favorite food and became ill over the item?

I can remember years ago getting sick over a store-bought cucumber, dreaming about having to eat a lot of them and never wanting to eat them again. It took years for me to eat another cucumber. Of course, they are one of my favorite vegetables now, but it was hard to even think of them after being sick.

Foodborne illness is transmitted from food to people.

An outbreak is an incident in which two or more people experience the same symptom/illness after eating the same food. It is investigated by the state or local authorities, and it is confirmed through laboratory analysis. There are about 48 million foodborne illnesses reported (one in six Americans) each year, and about 128,000 people are hospitalized as a result. Of course, there are those who do not go to the hospital due to milder symptoms, and those are never reported.

Years ago, a friend of my youngest son was eating out for breakfast. He became very ill and was hospitalized. The hospital stated that he had consumed an item with E. coli. E. coli is Escherichia coli and is a rod-shaped, coliform bacterium commonly found in the lower intestine of warm-blooded organisms.

This friend was very young and had a hard time fighting this bacterium. I remember his parents being so afraid and all because he consumed sausage for breakfast. With medication and the help of knowledgeable physicians, he finally fought this and was released from the hospital. We were all so very thankful.

There are four major bacteria that cause severe illness: E. coli, nontyphoidal salmonella, salmonella typhi and shigella spp. Those are the major ones, others are Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus-Staph, Clostridium botulinum-botulism, Bacillus cereus, Vibrio vulnificus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus.

Listeria monocytogenes can live in temperatures below 41 degrees Fahrenheit causing items that are frozen to remain contaminated.

Other areas you need to be concerned about with foodborne illness are the temperature that you cook the food, the time and temperature that food is left out and the facility or restaurant where you purchase it.

The Texas Department of State Health Services recommends that you use a meat thermometer and follow these temperature requirements when cooking or grilling meats:

¦ 165 degrees Fahrenheit for poultry, ground poultry, stuffing with poultry, meat and fish, microwave cooking and reheating leftovers.

¦ 155 degrees Fahrenheit for ground meat and fish injected meat (i.e. tenderized).

¦ 145 degrees Fahrenheit for meat, fish and raw shell eggs.

¦ 135 degrees Fahrenheit for hot holding of foods.

¦ 41 degrees Fahrenheit for cold holding of foods.

Cooked food sitting at room temperature is what the USDA calls the "danger zone," which is between 40 degrees and 140 degrees. In this range of temperatures, bacteria grow rapidly and the food can become unsafe to eat, so it should only be left out no more than two hours.

The safest way to consume food is to purchase it from a reputable source and cook it yourself. If you are going out to eat, make sure that the establishment is clean and well known.

Texas A&M Agrilife Extension offers a food protection management class for restaurant managers, and we are now offering this class in Gregg County. Each manager that is working in a restaurant is required to complete this class. The Upshur County agent and myself are offering this class May 16, 17 and 18 at Gregg County Precinct 1. This class is three half days with the final day being a review and test day. If you are interested in this class, please call Tami Putnam at (903) 236-8429 or Julie York at (903) 843-4019.

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