Sometimes the good ol’ summertime is loaded with new hazards that you are exempt from during the other months of the year. In the summer, all food seems to spoil faster and bugs are more ravenous for your dry goods. I just disposed of a plastic tub containing oatmeal that I had left in a cupboard, forgotten. When I finally opened it, the tub was filled with insects. Attentive readers will note that I’ve already covered this subject in “Predators in the Pantry.” While insects in the kitchen are aggravating, they are a minor problem compared with current food borne illnesses.

Most people hears about food borne bacteria on major news but few ever expect to be the victim of improperly stored or contaminated foods. We rely on our foods being wholesome and edible and assume our government is going to protect us from getting sick. It’s a myth; few even know where e-coli comes from. E-coli can come from the intestine of cows, chickens, pigs or any animal we eat. It is also frequently found in ground-meat or animal feces that can be found on the skin of cantaloupe. Some 2,100 persons were hospitalized for illnesses caused by e-coli last year. There are steps you can take to protect yourself.Thoroughly cook produce before eating. Just before washing fresh salad, remove the outer leaves as a precaution. Once you get home after going grocery shopping, quickly put the food away and make certain your refrigerator is around 40 degrees (be careful not to set it too cold, as that will freeze your veggies). Remove the produce from plastic bags. If you must use them, then buy the ones with tiny holes. They are available in the food wrap section of your supermarket. Keep your deli meats and cheeses in their own compartment. Once opened, rewrap tightly as exposure to oxygen will bring faster deterioration to the product. Any stickiness or discoloration indicates spoilage and food should be immediately disposed of. Food is expensive and carelessness is just wasted dollars.

Your freezer can be your greatest ally in the fight against food spoilage if used properly. The two key secrets to freezing are proper wrapping and dating everything. Here’s a tip on freezing chicken: bags of boneless chicken are subject to freezer burn once the package is opened; you can prevent this by transfering the remaining chicken to smaller zip bags.

Be careful when having picnics! All the salads made with mayo like potato salad, deviled eggs and custard pie are potential food poisoning pals. We see the potato salad sitting on the picnic table for hours without refrigeration and it often will contain its share of uncooked ingredients. Substitute your potato salad with coleslaw (no egg dressing) or a pasta salad with balsamic vinegar dressing with sun-dry tomatos and olives. Because milk can sour quite rapidly, few picnickers bring it along. Instead of bringing soda, bring a gallon of ice tea chilled with a good supply of fruit flavored ice cubes. For extra big cubes make them in cupcake tins. For desert, bring fruit. Watermelon is an excellent choice but should be thoroughly scrubbed as soon as you bring it home. I may be asking you to break BBQ tradition but only because I am concerned about your health and safety.

A home a few extra precautions will keep your grocery bill lower and your food safer to eat. Return food back to the refrigerator after using, especially milk. Train family members to use clean utensils when removing mayo, mustard and pickles from the jar. When you bring home a quart of fresh mayo, divide it into two jars. Pint jars are easily acquired. Once you fill them, seal and label the container. It will stay fresher than leaving it in one jar. Never keep gourmet herb infused oil in the cupboard.

Everyday foods that Americans usually think of as benign can be pulled by the FDA, so it is up to the consumer to be smart with new products before assuming that they are safe. A current example is the recent recall of a Stone Cold Creamery’s “Cake Batter” flavor, a product that had dry cake mix added to pasteurized sweet cream. Dry cake mix is not considered a ready to eat product. Whatever happened to just strawberries or chocolate? Let’s not even think about the ingredients of other products served in commercial eateries.

According to statistics, 1 out of every 4 Americans comes in contact with food borne diseases each year. You should take precautions to exclude yourself from this statistic. One can find several excellent websites on the subject by simply typing “FOOD BORNE DISEASES” in a search engine. You will find current statistics on each food borne disease. They are quite educational, unlike your evening news.

There are predators in our kitchen and they’re not leaving. The insects have just declared your kitchen as their personal Motel 6 for the next four months. Insects are everywhere, and the best way to guard against them is with a persistent pantry patrol.

First, we notice the fly, that black loathsome creature; he loves the window and loves to aviate around it, asserting his presence. When he is through bobbing back and forth on your window, he’s going to stop on that nice sandwich you just made for yourself. He’s landing on the mayo knife and trying out your dill pickle as you wonder how many germs he’s leaving behind. Flies buzz around your kitchen counter like guys checking out the automotive accessories on a new car. It is going to be a long summer and they want to investigate their options. With careless humans and sticky sweet drinks it looks like their fast food choices will be abundant and easy to find.

Keeping all doors closed is a good start, keeping a room cool is also helpful, as a cool room is not as inviting. Insect populations explode when the weather gets hot. Flies seem to come out of nowhere, but actually have just been in hibernation, waiting for a warm day.

As long we have had flies, man is forever reinventing his version of a fly swatter. I prefer a folded newspaper or non-slick, soft magazine. On the counter combat can be achieved by simply dropping a damp cloth on the fly distracted by his afternoon snack. One should only strike when they are out in the open.

Then there are cupboard pilots (moths or millers) who seem to think the inside of your cupboard is their local Raley’s. I recommend placing cream of wheat, ready-to-use biscuit mix, and other grain goods into tall glass jars or inexpensive plastic cereal dispensers and refrigerating them. Curly white worms can come to life even inside sealed containers within weeks of really hot weather. I’ve tossed more jars of rice and cereal than I care to recall.

This may sound a bit insane, but get yourself an old fridge at a thrift store and put it inside your garage. Set the fridge at the lowest setting and use just for dry goods (and some produce, if you care to). You can maintain a super low energy usage by placing gallon blocks of ice made in the freezer using used plastic milk cartons. I am a household of one but I have 2 refrigerators. Unprotected, I can assure you, insects will feast upon your grain train.

The inside of cupboards can be filled with herbs which will curtail our moths and millers from their flying field. Out in the garden, most herbs – after they recover from the shock of transplant – grow faster than crabgrass and are just as indestructible. Besides the obvious benefits fresh herbs provide for cooking, they are a marvelous insect repellent.

Lastly, it’s worthwhile to remember that ants favorite foods seem to be sugar and animal grease. That BLT you had last evening may have left just a few savory drippings on your kitchen counter or near your microwave; well, good morning ant city! You won’t believe this many ants can come out of nowhere when the night before there were none.

I thought I had successfully rid myself of ants after wiping down every inch of kitchen, putting the sugar in the refrigerator and removing any fresh fruit, but I was still losing the war. The only item left unmolested was Splenda that they simply snubbed.

My ant problem was most persistent in winter and early spring. Even my garbage can had ants marching in like Napoleon’s Army. Despite my misgivings about chemicals, I chose to trust modern ant warfare and placed four “Grant’s Sealed Ant Baits” in strategic positions. WOW! They left, and haven’t returned! Now it’s just me and the flyswatter. My kitchen is at the moment quite insect–free.

There are still lots things bugging me, yet unfortunately there is no way to eradicate those troublesome elements. My means of fighting back is with words and humor. I would love to hear about your method of de-bugging! After all, we managed for many
centuries before the Ace Hardware or the Clark man showed up.

I first heard about the dangers of Teflon in 2003 when Elizabeth Weise of USA Today brought it to my attention with an article entitled “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” Now again in 2005, another major media outlet, NBC Evening News, makes a very brief mention suggesting there is a serious danger. I checked the EPA website which didn’t explain it to my satisfaction so I went to other websites whose language was quite clear and well defined.

When Teflon is heated to 446 degrees Farenheit, toxic particles are released. When it reaches 680 degrees toxic gases are released. Among the six toxins released, two are carcinogenic, one of which is MFA (lethal to all humans even in low doses). Meanwhile, Dupont has said that in ordinary use Teflon is safe.

When Dupont failed to report the dangers of Teflon to the EPA it was fined $300 million. Next month, Dupont will finalize a settlement upwards of $300 million for a class action lawsuit accusing the company of allowing PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid, used in the manufacture of some Teflon products) to contaminate the drinking water of Ohio and West Virgina. Tests have been conducted and a large number of the population have PFOA in their blood stream. For some it may raise their level of cholesterol and triglycerides leading to a greater possibility of heart attack or stroke.

The EPA has declared that Teflon is a potential health risk especially when used at high temperatures. Once the EPA has informed the public of the risk, it is the discretion of the public to weigh the facts and decide for themselves.

Please visit the following websites for more valid information about the EPA information:

www.ecomall.com/greenshopping/teflon4.htm
http://www.mercola.com/2005/jun/7/teflon_toxicity.htm

Or you can E mail…Dr Arnold of Danville,Ca who provided me the above sites at chirodocpsualm@msn.com

There are practical alternatives to Teflon. I switched back to old Revere copper-bottomed fry pans and I just love them. As far as saucepots go, I can’t possibly have enough praise for the Corning Ware glass cookware called Visions. Most of mine were found in thrift stores.

Aluminum is a good conductor but its surface has many drawbacks and is often why cookware makers put the aluminum in the center of the pot and stainless steel on the outside. Most people find a seasoned iron skillet is pretty close to the perfect way to fry. Certainly you can sear meat with no fear of strange particles adhering to it. All Asian chefs use carbonated steel woks which, of course, are heated to super-high temperatures. A wok coated with Teflon would be potentially dangerous.

Besides the health risks imposed by Teflon coatings, there is another factor that should be considered… short life!! Needing to replace pans every time a few scratches appear can be downright wasteful of your money. As a recent commercial once said, “It’s not how much money you have but how well you know how to stretch it.” So cook cleanly and safely on good steel, copper, or iron pans which won’t need replacing for a few decades. Otherwise, your money may be going up in a PFOA of smoke.

The danger of rancid fats has been greatly overlooked in media health warnings, yet they are this country’s major cancer producers. Perhaps just a few precautions could help you avoid the claws of menacing peroxidized(rancid) fats.

We have 4 basic groups of fat which are in our foods. While some are desirable and recommended, others are man-made convenience fats. Yet, no matter how virtuous they are, all fats are subject to rancidity and need to be protected. (OR… and we need to be protected from them.)??

A. Saturated Fats: are natural in foods such as butter, beef, bacon, eggs, sausages and lard. They are more stable than the oils but will spoil in due time. Unlike processed fats, they are broken down by the body.
B. Polyunsaturated Oils: are chemically unstable. They contain a number of loose carbon bonds in the atomic structure. When exposed to heat and light, they will quickly create harmful free radicals. The higher the unsaturated level, the more potent the danger. Your oil label will tell you precisely the type of oil and the percentage.
C. Monounsaturated: seems to be the healthy choice of the day. Most common are olive, avocado and nut oils. They are more stable than polyunsaturated oils and provide needed essential fatty acids. This is probably why the Mediterranean diet has fewer incidents of heart disease.
D. Hydrogenated Processed Fats: such as margarine and most of the fats which are used in deep-frying in restaurants. Of late, the name trans fats was added to this group. Recent studies have shown these are not healthy and may contribute to heart problems.
E. Omega Oils: from fish have been shown to be the most beneficial of all oils. Such oils improve blood flow and prevent blood cells from sticking together and preventing premature clots.

Understanding our choices of oils and fats will help us create a healthier lifestyle. However, how we manage these fats is crucially important. Avoiding rancid fat is the key preventive measure for keeping your body’s free radicals at bay. Free radicals are merely carcinogenic substances which appear in excess in highly unhealthy foods (from fats). If they are not removed, they will cause permanent damage. This is why fresh fruits and vegetables are crucial in cancer prevention.

What are the common causes of rancidity:

l. BOTTLED OIL: you opened and placed in the cupboards. As soon as you open the top, it begins to oxidize. It will not be noticeable by smell. This will go bad much faster than fat from meat. Your choices are store it in the refrigerator or add your own BHT.
2. OPENED DRESSINGS: mayonnaise, salad dressings, tarter sauce and peanut butter. To begin with, don’t buy big sizes and write the date on lid on when you opened it.
With mayonnaise, always buy smaller. (If you can’t find a pint size, buy the quart size and split it into two pint-size jars). Seal tightly and mark last used date on the label. Secondly do not remove mayo with used tool. If mayo spread to side of the jar, REMOVE this with rubber spatula; this is potentially very carcinogenic.
Peanut butter will also go bad after some time. Same rule–don’t remove with a dirty spoon or knife.
3. MEATS: can become carcinogenic. Ground beef is the worst offender. The process of grinding mixes blood with fat, and the broken red blood cells release iron and copper, speeding up this oxidation process. Keep bacon and other cured meats well wrapped, noting when they were opened. Any cured meats with discoloration or a sticky-like appearance should be dumped. Nitrates in them are carcinogenic, so limit your usage.
4. NUTS, CRACKERS and COOKIES: While nuts are very good, rancid nuts are deadly. Buy nuts only where you can trust their freshness if consumed within a week. However, most nuts maintain quality if chilled. Crackers and cookies should never be purchased in factory outlet stores; your chances of rancid fats are high. The same goes for some bake mixes; although the date is safe, they may have been stored in a hot warehouse.
5. BARBECUE SMOKE: the final and worst offender. It seems that when meat fats melt over charcoals then return to the meat, a highly dangerous chemical called ”Hetercocyclicamines” is created. Breathing the smoke is equally dangerous. Trimming fats from the meat before barbecuing is helpful.

It will, of course, be impossible to mention every possible means of ingesting rancid fats, but we do have a trump card in this game to stay cancer free. Our ace is, and has been, nature’s own weapon against mass destruction of our cells—anti-oxidants. They are readily available in pill form but better yet in leafy green vegetables and those red fruits.

You have a clear choice in staying healthy: avoid rancid fats, limit sodium nitrate products, and eat foods that are high in anti-oxidants. Both CSPI and USDA can offer many great anti-oxidant food choices. I would appreciate any question or new information on the subject. Rancid fats have been ignored and need to be properly publicized. Any notes will be posted. Information resources are available upon request.

Of all the advice given for disease prevention, none make more sense than the mere washing of the hands. Apparently, the short reign of bacteria destroying cleaning products has bit the dust. Today, it seems that ordinary soap and water have magical powers. Washing before eating is a must. However, it’s when we’re away from home that we have difficulty cleaning our hands before we pop those snacks or anything we ingest.

It’s helpful to have a big supply of wash & dries, damp washcloth with light soap in a plastic bag, or one of those bottles of alcohol-based cleaning compounds such as Purell.

If a survey was taken I sure that we would find that in our days away from home (no bathroom in sight) few have taken the time to wash their hands before placing anything in their mouth. I hardly think theres big line outside of the school bathroom just before lunch time. Yet, having a hand cleaner available to those students could cut down on many illnesses.

It is my practice to wash my hands as soon as I arrive home from being out. While cooking I wash my hands a dozen times mostly because they are sticky or covered with onion juice. Ever cut fruit with knife still holding the essence of garlic?

In course of the day you too have picked some unwanted hitchhikers: including bacteria, germs and even streptococcus. Washing your hands–it is cheapest form of disease prevention so why not use it?

How we select our food choices will be reflected in the quality of the meals we prepare. Being aware of the freshness in our food purchases is an important part of food shopping. It is human nature to snatch up bargains. It’s something we are all guilty of doing.
When food is marked down it could be an overstocked item or simply old and in need of dumping. I do occasionally shop at a neighborhood “GRAVEYARD GROCERY"–my pet name for surplus food outlets. While canned good and sundries are perfectly acceptable, frozen foods and bread items may be just one step away from the undertaker. Bread can easily be moldy and it’s not noticeable until you open it at home.
But these grocery outlets are not the only markets that offer markdowns. Ordinary markets also offer big sales on particular products–usually in the meat and poultry areas. Chickens from another state and brands you don’t recognize need equal scrutiny. Chances are they have been twice frozen.
Freshness and the origin of a product should be foremost in the mind of the food shopper. Food safety makes grocery shopping a serious biz and it should never be treated like a garage sale.