Potatoes

  • Gratuitous food porn shot of the day - oven-baked salmon, asparagus spears, baked potatoes and roasted corn

    Posted: October 8th, 2009 - 8:02pm by Doug Powell

    Sorenne eating dinner with mom and dad, Oct. 8, 2009.

    Oven-roasted salmon fillets (the farm-raised kind – more sustainable) with olive oil, lime juice, garlic and fresh thyme, corn-on-the-cob (Sorenne’s favorite, but getting starchy as the cold weather moves in), baked Russett potatoes and asparagus spears, the frozen kind, which were surprisingly good.
     

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    Food Safety Policy, Salmonella  |  0 Comments
    Asparagus, Cornucopia Institute, Dinners, Potatoes, Sorenne
  • Top 5 Records top ten list of riskiest foods

    Posted: October 6th, 2009 - 1:00pm by Ben Chapman

    I love High Fidelity. The book introduced me to Nick Hornby, the movie introduced me to Jack Black and the soundtrack introduced me to Bruce Springsteen.

    Okay, I knew about the Boss before, but the soundtrack indirectly led me to discover Thunder Road (which has helped me forget Dancing in the Dark).

    The High fidelity-esque, Top 5 Records Rob Gordon-style, Center for Science in the Public Interest released a list of the top ten "riskiest" foods.

    I place riskiest in dick fingers not because I want to be a dick, but because I don't think that's the right word. The list has been generated through data collected from CDC outbreak listings, state health departments and other various sources. The list should be called "The top 10 foods that are in dishes with foods regulated by the FDA, at some point, which have caused the most microbial foodborne illness outbreaks". But that title is too long.

    CSPI is better than anyone else at pulling this stuff together and has an outbreak database that I use all the time. The missing bit of information which is not captured in the list (but is alluded to a bit in the report) and is needed to put the info into context is where did the contamination occur or where was the risk reduction step missed. What is the attributed source?

    Source alone doesn't matter, food alone doesn't matter but putting those two data sources together allows for a concentration on where risk reduction efforts are needed.

    Potatoes are the food on the list I have the most problem with. And it's not because I have a soft spot for Idaho or Prince Edward Island. It's because the outbreaks that place potatoes on the list are associated with potato dishes. It just happens that potato salad is consumed a lot, is prepared alongside other foods that carry risks by foodhandlers who might suck at hygiene. Potato dishes (mainly because of the additon of other foods) also create a great medium for pathogens. Potatoes aren't on this list because potatoes are a particularly risky food.

    The report says that over 40% of the included potato outbreaks were linked to foodservice or processing. 60% come from elsewhere (which probably includes community dinners, festivals, and in-the-home). Should I not eat potatoes, or should I not eat potato dishes? What about potato chips? 

    That information matters when it comes to dedicating resources to address the risky foods. It's not a potato problem, it's not an FDA regulated-food problem. Food safety is a farm-to-fork, almost every food, food handling problem.

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    Cspi, Foodservice, Potatoes, Risky
  • Microwaving listeria out of potatoes

    Posted: February 23rd, 2009 - 8:49am by Casey Jacob

    Minnesota-based food maker Northern Star is recalling several different refrigerated potato products after some samples were found to have Listeria monocytogenes.

    According to WCCO-TV, a former employee had already reported concerns about listeria on plant equipment to the FDA.

    I’m not sure what his role was in the company, but he told the news crew,

    “…I like to protect the people who eat this product. I've seen mice all over the place. Cockroaches, black mold, listeria: I mean you name it, you can find it."

    Sounds pretty gross, but—if necessary—most of the poop can be cooked out of food.

    A report of the recall by kare11.com noted,

    “Officials say properly cooking the food kills Listeria bacteria, but the Minnesota Department of Agriculture says often times people overlook the cooking instructions and simply heat these products in the microwave.”

    It only takes a couple minutes to kill listeria if you can get the food up to 158F. A microwave can do this quickly, but unevenly. The cold spots that don’t get up to the right temp can still have listeria bacteria living in them.

    Therefore, many manufacturers—such as Northern Star—don’t provide that option in the cooking instructions.

    However, pretending people don’t use the microwave is not a realistic way to minimize the risk of someone getting sick.

    Some have suggested acknowledging consumer use of microwave ovens by pasting DO NOT MICROWAVE on packages of foods that are likely to make people sick if they’re not cooked properly (like raw chicken thingies).

    In the case of refrigerated hashbrowns, it’s probably reasonable to provide instructions for the microwave and include a little note on the dangers of uneven cooking.

    This would give consumers the opportunity to make an informed decision on how they’ll cook their potatoes. Particularly when there’s poop in them.

    So far, no illnesses have been reported in connection with this recall. Providing more information to consumers could help ensure that’s the case.



     

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    Food Safety Policy, Listeria  |  1 Comment
    Chicken Thingies, Instructions, Microwave, Northern Star, Potatoes