I've mentioned each of the actresses above because I have seen each of them handle raw meat, wipe their hands on a dishcloth, and go on about other business on their respective television shows. My question is this: how long have the USDA food safety guidelines been in place.
I am really paranoid about handling raw meat in my kitchen. I run hot sudsy water in my kitchen sink before handling the meat; I wash the dishes and wipe down the counters that the meat has touched as soon as possible; I run fresh sudsy water to wash any remaining dishes. Because I never feel as though I have taken quite enough precautions I find myself often praying over my kitchen, "Oh God, please protect my husband and my son from my poor attempts at housekeeping."
So do these actresses wipe their hands on dishclothes due to television convention, or are hand-washing recommendations a recent development? The number of ads both on television and the radio indicate to me that they may be. Obviously I haven't researched this.
3 comments:
I am leaving this comment to hopefully ease your mind about the severity of the raw meat risk.
When I worked at the grocery store with my Dad, we had a customer who came in pretty frequently and bought ground beef. As quickly as he got out of the store, he would scoop out a handful, and eat it raw. He died eventually, after many years, of heart disease.
Ease up on yourself a bit. All these government precautions have the effect of making people unnecessarily frightened. Exercise reasonable sanitation, pray if the Spirit leads you, and then forget about it.
If meat is going to harm your family, it is much more likely to contribute to heart disease, high blood pressure, etc., than to kill them via bacteria.
I know someone who does the same thing after handling chicken, and has apparently never had problems related to this, despite doing this for many years. But you also read about different people who got sick from food-related bacteria, etc.. I'm not willing to chance it.
I just read in a ladies' magazine tonight that 90% of American kitchen sinks have salmonella in them. How they determined this is funny for me to consider. Anyway, they recommended disinfecting the sink once a week, including the faucet handle. Shelly G also does this with doorknobs and lightswitches, which is a good idea during flu season. What I use to disinfect the sink, counters, etc., is a kind of Fantastic (that's the brand name, not my own adjective) spray that disinfects in 15 seconds, which is much more doable than the brands that take 15 minutes! I have one under the kitchen sink, and one under the bathroom sink, which I spray in the sink after spot treating the kids' soiled clothes there (I'm talking gross stuff).
I also clean my produce with some diluted, organic (expensive) dish cleaner that is safe enough to ingest. I use it to wash apples, grapes, etc.. I don't know what the actual health risks are, but I don't want to chance it, especially with my little fellow who is sensitive to gunk.
Hello!
I am contacting you because I am working with the authors of a book about blogs, and I'd like to request permission to use the photograph you have posted in this book. Please contact me at matt@wefeelfine.org, and I'd be happy to give you more information about the project. Please paste a link to your blog in the subject field. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Matt
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