• You are the first line of defense in keeping food safe. Keep yourself informed about food recalls and alerts, and follow these guidelines to prevent food poisoning.

• While raw meats and eggs are the most common sources of illness-causing microbes, fresh fruits and vegetables can also carry the organisms that cause food poisoning.

• Keep raw meats and fish away from other foods, especially those that won't be cooked.

• Never place food on the same plate or cutting board that previously held raw meat, poultry or seafood, unless the cutting board has been thoroughly washed.

• Use paper towels and soapy hot water to clean utensils, counter surfaces, and cutting boards immediately after preparing raw meats and fish. If you use sponges, place them in the upper rack of the dishwasher. Wash your hands, faucets, and anything else you may have touched.

• When purchasing fully-cooked take-away meat dishes, such as ribs or hamburgers, make sure they are piping hot, not warm. Use within 2 hours or refrigerate in shallow containers. Eat within 3 to 4 days.

• Leave ready-to-eat foods containing eggs, meat and dairy products in the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them. This includes cream pies and cakes frosted with cream cheese or whipped topping.

• To use a marinade as a dipping or basting sauce, set aside a portion before adding raw food.

http://www.consumersunion.org/food/0820nastdc898.htm http://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/index.html http://www.kraft.com.au/HealthyLiving/FoodSafety/FoodSafetyTips.htm

Food Safety: Common Allergies and Deadly Reactions Have you ever felt ill shortly after eating something and wonder, "Maybe I’m allergic to what I ate?"

Chances are, you are not. You may be intolerant of certain foods and suffer from gastrointestinal distress, but true food allergies only affect about 1 to 3 percent of adults, and about 3 to 8 percent of children.

However, if you ARE allergic --- and some 11 million Americans have food allergies of varying degrees of severity --- it is a very serious matter. It is important that people with true food allergies identify them and avoid the food in question. Otherwise, they face devastating illness or even a fatal reaction.

What is a Food Allergy? A food allergy is the immune system responding to a food that the body mistakenly believes is harmful. That response is to create specific antibodies to the food, and the next time it is eaten, the immune system releases chemicals to try to protect the body. But these chemicals trigger allergic symptoms that can harm the skin, joints, or the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular or nervous systems.

Unfriendly Foods

While any food can cause allergies, eight types of food cause 90 percent of all food allergic reactions. They are:

• Eggs
• Fish
• Milk
• Shellfish
• Soy
• Peanuts
• Tree nuts (walnut, pecan, etc.)
• Wheat

In children, the most common food allergies are associated with eggs, milk, and peanuts. Adults generally don't lose food allergies, but children may outgrow them.

Treatment

If you are diagnosed with a food allergy, treatment essentially consists of removing the problem food from your diet.

Carefully read the ingredient lists --- required on labels by the Food and Drug Administration --- for anything you are considering eating. When eating out, ask if the dish you would like to order is prepared with any ingredients to which you are allergic.

Patients with severe food allergies should wear medical alert bracelets or necklaces stating that they have a food allergy and that they are subject to severe reactions.

Fending Off Danger Foods

Parents and caregivers must know how to protect children from foods to which the children are allergic and how to manage the children if they consume a food to which they are allergic, including the administration of epinephrine.

There are many substitutes for foods that don't agree with you, such as wheat-free breads and pastas and milks made from soy, rice, oats or almonds. A nonprofit organization, the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network (www.foodallergy.org), provides education, advocacy and support for those with food allergies.

[edit] Food safety tips during Pregnancy

Food safety is important for everyone, not just a pregnant woman. However, while "eating for two" a woman should be particularly cautious about what kinds of foods she eats, as well as how she handles food. Here are some tips to avoid food-borne illness during pregnancy:

• Avoid fish that are high in mercury, such as shark, swordfish, king mackerel and tilefish. Limit your intake of other fish containing mercury to 12 oz a week.
• Avoid uncooked fish altogether. This includes sushi, and especially includes shellfish such as oysters and clams.
• Certain soft cheeses, such as feta, brie, Camembert, Roquefort, blue-veined, queso blanco, queso fresco or Panela may cause listeriosis and should be avoided.
• Ready-to-eat meats, such as packaged deli or lunch meats may also contain listeriosis and should be avoided.
• Refrigerated pates or meat spreads should also be avoided.
• Be sure that all food you eat is cooked thoroughly so as to kill any disease-causing bacteria or parasites.
• Raw vegetable sprouts and fresh fruit and vegetable juices may contain salmonella and E. coli and should be avoided.
• Drink only pasteurized juices, as these should be free of such contaminants.
• Liver should be avoided as it contains high doses of Vitamin A which may be harmful to your baby.
• Be sure to follow safe food handling procedures when preparing food, including washing with hot soapy water before and after handling food.
• Always wash cutting boards, other work surfaces and utensils with hot soapy water after contact with raw poultry, fish or meat. Do not place cooked foods on the plate that held uncooked foods without washing the plate with hot soapy water.
• Rinse fruits and vegetables under running water before eating, removing dirt with a scrub brush.
• Set the temp in your refrigerator to 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below to slow the growth of bacteria.

[edit] Links

•| Food allergy |

•The Allergy Relief Center