What are the odds of getting food poisoning?!
Answers: I would like to know if the odds of food poisoning are greater than I thought..
Wow!! There are A LOT of urban myths surrounding this subject.
Actually, it is safer to eat out than it is at home. Restaurants have food safety and sanitation systems in place. If they didn't, then the health department would close them down. Secondly, most home cooks know NOTHING about food safety and sanitation.
To prove this, answer the following questions:
1) What temperature should you keep your refrigerator at to prevent bacteria growth in your food?
2) What temperature should chicken be cooked in order to kill salmonella?
3) What is the ideal temperature range for the promotion of bacteria growth in food?
4) Name three safe ways to thaw food?
5) At what temperature should ground beef be cooked at in order to kill e-coli?
6) What kind of foods are most likely to develop botulism?
7) What is a safe temperature to serve pork, fish and eggs?
8) How long and at what temperature can food be stored at in a refrigerator?
9) How long can food sit out on the counter before it becomes dangerous to consume?
10) How should counter tops be sanitized?
The odds of food poisoning have NEVER been calculated, as there are too many factors involved. There is a greater risk for small children and older people, however.
And the thing about restaurants getting their seafood on Friday. Well that is true. However, restaurants pack their seafood in crushed ice, which, according to the health department, they will be allowed to keep (and serve) for 7 days (Its barely above the freezing point). Monday's fish is only three days old, which is perfectly acceptable.
So, I guess if you don't practice food safety at home, the odds of food poisoning will be greater. If you're really worried about it, go down to your local health department and pick up a "Food Handlers" booklet. This is the same booklet that restaurant employees have to study in order to obtain their "Food Handlers Card". Read the book and practice the procedures. Your food will be much safer.
I think they are higher when you eat out. When you are preparing your own food you tend to take better care of your food, than the people that are just handing it out to you out of a window at a drive thru.
Food poisoning is more common than people think.
The first kind of food poisoning: If you've ever had a "stomach flu", what you actually had was food intoxication. (side note: there's no such thing as a flu virus that attacks the stomach. The "stomach flu" doesn't exist)
The second kind: If you've ever felt sick long after eating, you're suffering from a foodborne illness.
Depends on your version of cleanliness, and how long you store foods. For the latter, see the websites below.
Don't order seafood on a Sunday or Monday in a restaurant. They got their last delivery Friday morning.
A lot of the "stomach flu" calls into work are really food poisoning. Be careful, and good luck.
There is a bacteria family called "e-coli". when you eat the food contaminated with this bacteria you get sick with stomack aches and loose motion
there have actually been estimates on the number of foodborne illlnesses in the US. It's from a little agency called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The links below are to foodnet. Foodnet is a collaborative effort to track and more accurately report foodborne disease. It doesn't cover the whole country because it takes a lot of work.people to track all this. Many foodborne cases go unreported-people think they just have an upset stomach when it can be more. the CDC estimates that 76 million people are made sick, 300,000 people are hospitalized and 5000 die each year from foodborne disease. It is true that most restaurants are safer than home because think of all you do at home and how often you clean. However, the perception of restaurants being less clean is because you serve only your family at your home but restaurants serve many so when they have a problem it affects more people and it's on the news, etc.
Those are impossible odds to calculate.What is easier to figure is that you are exponentially safer eating in a restaurant then you are at home.
Home cooks know only a single digit percentage of what the pro's know about Food Service Sanitation.In addition in pro kitchens everybody is monitoring everybody else for their use of proper sanitation practices. Such things don't happen at home
A couple of more things:
The proper term is Food Borne Illness
The proper distinction between food infection and food intoxication is that food infection can be cooked out and food intoxication can never be cooked
E-coli is an infection
Botulism is an intoxication