Thursday, November 7, 2013

The foods most likely to give you food poisoning

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CHICKEN often gets the blame when you fall victim to food poisoning, but it's likely it was the salad in your meal that actually made you sick.

Dodgy takeaway foods are also assumed to be the cause of foodborne illnesses, but it's more likely that the leftover rice is what made you sick - not the curry or stir fry.

Lorraine Belanger, spokeswoman for Food Standards Australia New Zealand, said a lot of foodborne illness happens in the home. And under the right circumstances anything can give you food poisoning.

"People think of chicken as the number one suspect but actually things like salads and cut fruit, if handled in wrong way or exposed to wrong things, can cause major foodborne outbreaks."

Many foodborne illnesses take days or weeks to manifest.

"When people get sick they think 'Oh it was that thing I ate at lunch' but it could be something they ate a week ago," Ms Belanger said.

Juliana Madden, executive officer at the Food Safety Information Council, says vegetarians and vegans often think they're more protected from food poisoning but this is not the case.

"Some of the largest food safety issues that have popped up in the last few years have been things like baby spinach and tomatoes," Ms Madden said.

In the lead up to Australian Food Safety Week next week, here are seven foods you should know pose food poisoning risks.

Picture: Thinkstock Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

Rice

Rice can be infected with Bacillus cereus, which is present as spores and can survive easily in dry conditions such as a packet.

"People cook the rice which then activates the spores. So if you don't put [cooked rice] in the fridge you almost create a perfect environment for food poisoning," Ms Madden said.

Cooking rice doesn't kill the spores and warm, moist rice is a great place for bacteria to grow. So if you have leftover rice you should put it in the fridge it as soon as possible, and don't keep it longer than three days.

Raw vegetables

Lettuce and tomatoes carry the risk of salmonella and E. coli - which can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.

Lettuce, celery or anything that grows on the ground can have E. coli present because it's in the soil.

Tomatoes and other vegetables can get contaminated when hand packed by unclean hands.

To avoid illness, wash vegetables well and make sure you use clean boards and clean knives.

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Fruit

Listeria can grow on the skin of rockmelons which are grown on the ground. When people touch the skin and also the melon flesh when cutting up their fruit this can lead to cross contamination.

Sprouts

Sprouts can be contaminated with bacteria such as E. coli, listeria, and salmonella.

To produce sprouts, seeds are soaked then kept moist for several days while they sprout. The conditions for sprouting a seed are ideal for bacteria growth. So if the seeds are contaminated with bacteria, the numbers may be very high in the sprout.

Cooking sprouts largely decreases the bacteria risk.

Picture: Thinkstock Picture: Thinkstock Source: Supplied

Chicken, duck and turkey

These birds risk can carry salmonella and campylobacter. The good news is the risk from bacteria is completely eliminated if the meat is cooked through properly.

But if you wash your meat you can easily splash salmonella onto vegetables or other items that won't be cooked, so they become cross-contaminated.

Eggs

Eggs can also carry nasty salmonella, which causes diarrhoea and vomiting.

Cooking eggs thoroughly kills bacteria, but be careful to thoroughly clean utensils and wipe down bench tops if they come into contact with raw egg.

Foods made with raw and lightly cooked eggs can also pose big risks, including homemade mayonnaise, béarnaise sauce, hollandaise sauce, homemade ice-cream, mousses, custards, tiramisu and uncooked pancake batter, cake mix, pastry or biscuit dough.

Deli meats

Hams, salamis and other cold meats can carry listeria.

Listeria loves moist warm environments and it is reasonably naturally occurring. But it will grow even in refrigeration. It's mainly present in sliced meats because they're not always stored in a closed refrigerated area.

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