WHEN PICNICS TURN BAD

Food-borne illnesses can kill, so take precautions.

Asbury Park Press, July 17, 2007
MICHAEL RILEY
STAFF WRITER

In a summer filled with blockbuster horror films and stomach-churning thrill rides, who thinks of The Menace of the Potato Salad at the family picnic? But it's there, and the sheer amount of food poisoning out there is truly staggering.

According to Debra Dobies, a registered dietitian and educator for Community and Senior Services for Meridian Health, there are 76 million cases in the United States each year; 325,000 of those cases require hospitalization.

"Five thousand people die each year from food poisoning," she says.

And it's not as if bad clams and spoiled onion dip always come with a warning.

"You can't always tell by taste, sight or odor if food has gone bad," says Dobies, who presents her "Safe At The Plate" food safety program at various community meetings. "And the onset of symptoms can occur anywhere from one-half hour to six weeks after ingesting the tainted food."

When the food poisoning hits hard enough, some folks end up in the emergency room.

Dr. Robert Sweeney, chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, has seen his share of food-borne illnesses.

"There are multiple different sources of food poisoning," Sweeney says, resulting from bacteria or toxins released by those bacteria.

There may be salmonella in improperly prepared chicken, E. coli in improperly ground meats, he says, and hepatitis A in bad clams.

Minor cases of food poisoning, says Sweeney, are often self-limiting and resolve themselves.

If patients present such typical food-borne illness symptoms as vomiting and diarrhea, the basic course of treatment is simple. "There's no need to pump the stomach because the stomach is really a self-pumping organ," he says. "We treat the symptoms and tell patients to keep an eye on them."

Of course, there are more exotic forms of the malady.

"Ciguatera fish poisoning," says Sweeney, "which can come from reef fish such as grouper and mackerel, presents with vomiting and diarrhea and also can cause numbness in the lips, weakness in the limbs and the reversal of the sensations of hot and cold."

Robin Flipse of Bradley Beach is a registered dietitian and nutrition consultant in private practice.

"The vast majority of bellyaches in this country can probably be attributed to some form of food poisoning," she says. "And much of it can be avoided.

"Parents know to wash their child's school lunch box every day," she says, "but they should also wash their cooler after every use."

She also points out that the "two-hour rule" about throwing away food that has been where the temperature is above 40 degrees for more than two hours should become the "one-hour rule" for temperatures above 90 degrees.

"The single food that people leave out more often is pizza," she says. Just because it's in a box doesn't mean it is safe to leave out overnight and snack on in the morning. The proteins in the cheese can foster the growth of bacteria."

The two-hour rule also applies to doggie bags, she says.

"If you are going to the theater after dinner, then the food in the doggie bag is not going to be safe when you get home," Flipse says.

Everywhere you look in the summer are food preparation precautions you can take, from not thawing frozen food on the counter top to not serving the barbecue on the same plate on which it was prepared, Dobies says.

Flipse and Dobies agree that washing your hands with soap and warm water while singing two rousing choruses of "Happy Birthday," (which should take about 20 seconds) will go a long way to keep food-born contaminants off you and the food you touch.

ON THE WEB: Go to www.app.com and click on this story on Jersey Life for a link to more information on food safety from the American Dietetic Association.