FLYING SOUTH FOR THE WINTER? FEELING GOOD Germ Wars Continued from preceding page DON'T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT THEM! Complete your travel wardrobe with the latest in prescription or non-prescription eyewear. At steven franklin optics ON THE BOARDWALK. 6891 ORCHARD LAKE ROAD SOUTH OF MAPLE 855.5810 20-30% OFF SELECTED STYLES "You'll like our service .. you'll love our people." Adeline A. Laforet, RN President Home/Hospital/Nursing Home Nursing Care/Personal Care/Homemaking Rent-a-Mom 536.0056 ALWAYS OPEN 357-7080 656-7076 Dearborn Southfield Rochester Medicare/Blue Cross/Private Insurance Health Care PROFESSIONALS LTD. • Botulism — widely found in the environment, it only produces toxin in a low-acid, oxygenless environment such as in canned vegetables. Bo- tulism affects the respiratory tract, causing progressive paralysis with symptoms of double vision, inability to swallow and speech difficulty. Medical attention is neces- sary since botulism can be fatal. Other bacteria and or- ganisms, including hepatitis virus, mycotoxicosis molds, and the giardiasis and ame- biasis protozoa, also cause distress. Because many of the bac- teria that can cause con- tamination exist naturally in the digestive tracts of ani- mals, meat, dairy and poultry processing operations have a greater potential for problems than a bakery operation, for example. Some of the major documented outbreaks of food poisoning have been traced to the pasteurization process. At the Hillfarm Dairy in Chicago, 16,284 confirmed cases of salmonellosis and at least two deaths resulted from the consumption of con- taminated low-fat milk. As many as 200,000 people may have been stricken during the outbreak a few years ago. In 1985, listeriosis, another food- borne bacteria that flourishes in milk, caused more than 100 deaths in California among people who ate an unpasteurized cheese. More recently, the National Academy of Sciences released, a study indicating that gov- ernment inspection proce- dures fail to identify salmo- nella and other microorganisms in more than one-third of all chickens sold in stores. Packaging OSE WEIGHT FAST! 10 - 20 Lbs. First Week gssellTruse-- A European Style Health Resort in Historic OW Key West Holistic Meals & Juice Fasting. Complete Spa Facilities. Body Wraps • Massage • Facials RUSSELL HOUSE 611 Truman Ave. Key West, FL 33040 (305) 294-8787 FREE BROCHURE 6-F FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1988 Fluid packed with the chicken may be the worst source of contamination. It is likely to contain the bacteria and comes in contact with knives, cutting boards, coun- ters and hands during food preparation. The study called on the Department of Agri- culture to abandon its visual inspection checks and adopt a rigorous random bacterial testing of poultry. The FDA, according to Miller, who is the agency's top food safety official, is reex- amining its approach to microbiological, standards and inspection. "We can't separate microbiological issues from the toxicological issues, from the nutritional issues, from the chemical issues," he said. "It isn't a question of how you can protect people from what's in the food supply, but rather one of how you can improve their health and quality of life by changing the food supply." Home Cooks By and large, though, the biggest threats to the whole- someness of food are the cook- ing habits of home cooks. In the way they shop, cook, serve and store food, many home cooks are inviting disaster. Dangerous micro- organisms multiply and thrive at temperatures between 40 and 120 degrees. Though freezing prohibits the growth of bacteria, it does not kill them. To be safe, food must be cooked at a high enough tem- perature to kill bacteria, then stored in a way that inhibits recontamination and growth. As a general rule, keep hot foods hot and cold foods cool. Limit the amount of time food is at a temperature where bacteria can multiply and be safe; food should be kept at room temperature for no longer than two hours. That means that after sit- ting on the table during dinner, leftovers should go right in the refrigerator. It also means that a kettle of hot soup should not cool on the stovetop for hours before it goes into the refrigerator. You can cool the pot down by dividing its contents into small containers or placing it in a sink full of cold water, then refrigerating it. There's a myth that hot food should not go directly in the re- frigerator — probably a hold- over from the days of the icebox. Most new energy- efficient refrigerators are capable of handling the extra cooling load with ease. Defrosting Food should be allowed to defrost in the refrigerator or in a covered container sub- merged in cold water. It should be cooked promptly when defrosted. The best temperature for the home freezer is 0 degrees. In a refrigerator, food keeps best at 34 to 38 degrees. Kitchen counters and chop- ping boards should be cleaned between each use with warm soapy water. All utensils that come in contact with raw meat should be cleaned before they are used on other food to avoid cross contamination. A wooden chopping block needs rigorous cleansing. It's a good idea to have different ones for different purposes, so you're not chopping vegeta- bles in juices from raw meat. Cooked food can become