Best Ways to Rinse Produce

 

 

 

 

 

My Sister-in-law texted me:  how do you wash your produce?

Me:  Water

SIL: Don’t you use soap or something?

Me:  No just lots of fresh running water.

SIL:  Dr. on YouTube says to use soap in the sink.

Me:  That will make you sick.

SIL: So how do you kill the germs?

Me:  Don’t want to kill them, just slide them down the drain.

 

OK, first let’s set the record straight. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there is no evidence that food or food packaging is involved with the transmission of COVID-19 (up-to-date information is available on their website ).  Like all other viruses, it needs a living host —which could be a person or an animal — on which to grow.  Viruses do not grow in food. While the chances of this happening are very low, the virus could potentially be on the food if a fellow shopper or store worker with the virus sneezed or coughed on it.  So washing your hands after touching food and packaging is a prudent activity. Remember this is a respiratory illness not a gastrointestinal illness, the virus needs to get into your respiratory system to make you sick.

Back to the instructions:  don’t touch your face, nose, and mouth and wash your hands (with soap and water) a lot.

Produce should be handled all the time, not just during this COVID-19 pandemic, using good food safety practices.

  • Wash your hands and counter tops before handling produce.
  • Wash the produce thoroughly in fresh running water.
  • Even wash foods that you’re going to peel because dirt or bacteria can be transferred from the skin onto the moist meaty section of the food when you slice or peel it.

Check out the FDA’s 7 Tips for Cleaning Fruits, Vegetables for specifics: https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/7-tips-cleaning-fruits-vegetables

Despite what you may have seen on social media, you should not wash produce in soap, detergent, sanitizer or any chemical disinfectant. If produce is washed it soap, the soap may be absorbed by the food or you may not get it washed off completely, this could cause gastrointestinal problems.

Plain water is good enough. Several studies have been done looking at washing produce with commercial produce washes and they found that they are no more effective than running water.

Be a good consumer. Don’t shop if you’re sick. Sanitize shopping carts and hands as you enter stores. Don’t touch items you don’t plan on purchasing.  Sanitize your hands when you leave the store and wash them when you get home.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS

Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

References: Washing Food: Does it promote food safety?  United States Department of Agriculture. https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/2ceaa425-0488-4e86-a397-e2d9c470fc4a/Washing_Food.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

Bulletin #4336 Best Ways to Wash Fruits and Vegetables, University of Maine Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Cooperative Extension https://extension.umaine.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/04/wash-fruits-vegetables.jpg

Looking for a project? Clean the pantry

 

 

 

I’m betting that there are many folks like me that put off cleaning the pantry  by saying “someday I’ll have the time”.  Right now some of us have that time unplanned time at home, so…attack the pantry.

Goals:

  • Have the most nutritious meals possible from what’s on hand
  • Don’t leave your home
  • Eliminate food waste by using up what’s already there
  • Save money on groceries
  • Clean the pantry and freezer
  • Teach kids meal planning
  • Get organized

Start by taking everything out and putting on a near-by counter or table.  Wipe down the empty shelves and vacuum the cracks and crevices.

Then come up with a strategy for how you want it arranged as it goes back in.  A written inventory could help with meal planning and future shopping.

As you’re sorting and organizing the dry or canned foods you can check the dates. To set the record straight, the dates on food has nothing to do with food safety.  There is nothing illegal about stores selling shelf staple foods that are beyond the date marked. (The one exception here is infant formula and some baby food.)

Packages frequently have words like “best by” or “use by” on them.  Note that it doesn’t  say “do not eat” after this date.  These dates are provided by the food manufacturers as a way for you to judge the quality and freshness. Putting dates on packages is entirely at the discretion of the manufacturer and not required.  After all, they would like you to eat their food when it is at its best.

Many unopened shelf-stable products will be of good quality long past the date.  Use the dates to help you rotate them, and use the oldest first. Non-perishable foods such as sugar, dried beans, spices and canned goods do not spoil unless they are handled carelessly.  They will lose quality and even nutritional value, however, if stored for a long time, even if stored under ideal conditions. So it’s best to use them as soon as possible.

In general, canned foods will be safe for a long time.  The rule-of-thumb is high acid foods like tomatoes and fruits are good for 12 to 18 months. Other low acids foods like meats and vegetables will last two to five years.

Check the cans carefully. Pitch any that are dented, bulging, rusted or leaking. As with packaged dry foods, the quality and nutrition of canned foods may deteriorate over time, but if the can is in good shape there should be no food safety concerns.  Check the boxed and packaged foods for rips, tears and signs that bugs or rodents have gotten inside.

I like to look at this as a challenge. Can you “get by” without going to the store for a couple of weeks?  How many meals can you make from what’s on hand?

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS

Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

References:

Shelf-Stable Food Storage UDFS/FSIS  https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/safe-food-handling/shelf-stable-food-safety/ct_index

 

Shop from your freezer

Not wanting to go to the grocery store and have more time at home to cook than usual? Looking for meals you can cook for dinner from what’s already in your house? It’s time to shop from your freezer.

Do you really know what’s in there? Take the time to pull things out and make decisions if I you’ll ever use that food or not. You might want to do an inventory list so you can remember what’s there. Update this list as you use up the food.

Some keys for freezer storage:

The “rule of thumb” for freezing fresh foods (like turkey, hamburger, fresh fruits and vegetables) is that it will keep for one year. Precooked foods and leftovers are best if eaten within three to four months. These time recommendations are for quality not safety.

This loss of quality is what’s often called “freezer burn” and does not necessarily make food unsafe.   This can be dehydration, deterioration of quality or just an “off flavor”.  Safety wise food can stay in the freezer longer if there has not been any loss of power and the food has been kept at zero degrees.  Think quality vs. safety. The US Food and Drug Administration has a great chart online with recommended freezer storage times.

Another key to keeping your freezer items under control and to help with the inventory is to label all items with the description and date.  You may think you’ll always remember what’s in that package, but once frozen applesauce can look like gravy and kale can look like chopped broccoli.  Mystery food.

If you have find you have a collection of these unknown items….have a Surprise Dinner! Thaw out all of these unlabeled items and serve as a smorgasbord.  It may not be balanced nutrition, it may not all go together, but you’ve accomplished several things – cleaned the freezer, learned what’s there and fun (ny) dinner.

When looking at these items and making decisions remember the old saying, “when in doubt about the age, the quality or the safety of a food….throw it out.”

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS

Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

Reference:

Cold Food Storage https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/1d403c11-63f0-4671-990e-51c9f8f05b2c/Cold-Food-Storage-Magnet-2017.pdf?MOD=AJPERES

 

 

Caution: Shopping Excitement

Everyone’s mind right now if focusing on COVID-19.   If you’re like me, you’re planning fewer trips to the grocery store and “stocking up” a little more while there.

Since I hadn’t been to the store in about a month our supply of fresh foods was gone.  When we finally went to the store and I was thrilled to replenish and may have gotten a little carried away.  I’m thinking I was on-the-edge of “over-purchasing” (hopefully that’s a step-down from a hoarder.) I’m working on using the food up and sharing some with neighbors,  but I have a feeling that others may be in the same boat as me—uncertain of the future and also “eyes bigger than the refrigerator” while shopping.

This “shopping excitement”  could lead to food waste or (even worse) a foodborne illness that could cause you to need a doctor or emergency room (not something any of us want to do right now).

11 of our “tried and true” food safety cautions are even more important to remember now:

  1. Get food into the refrigerator as soon as possible after shopping.  I know some folks are thinking they should leave it in the garage for a couple of days, this may cause more problems with temperatures outside rising into the temperate danger zone.
  2. Check the temperature of your refrigerator. It should be below 40 degrees F. But keep it higher enough not to freeze your lettuce and other fresh foods.
  3. Don’t overfill the refrigerator.  Allow for air circulation. Practice FIFO in your refrigerator—First In, First Out.
  4. Wash your hands before beginning to cook. Most folks are getting better at this.
  5. Wash the kitchen countertop before you begin to cook.  If you have a cause-for-concern you might want to sanitize or disinfect the work surfaces in addition to cleaning.
  6. Store fresh meat and poultry in a pan on the bottom of the refrigerator so it won’t drip onto fresh fruits and vegetables that won’t be cooked.  Sealed containers are the most ideal type to use for raw meat, poultry, and fish.
  7. If you’re doing bulk purchasing of fresh meat or chicken be sure to take care—mishandling of these foods has been linked to foodborne illnesses in the past.  Avoid getting the juices in your vehicle or on other foods, utensils,  countertops, and other kitchen surfaces.  Freeze what you can’t use within 7 days.
  8. Remember meat and poultry should be cooked to the minimum recommended internal temperature.  Chicken should be cooked to 165 degrees F, ground beef to 155 degrees F and whole cuts of beef and pork to 145 degrees F.  Use a thermometer to check temps—don’t guess.
  9. After cooking and eating be sure to put any leftovers into the refrigerator as soon as possible.
  10. If you’ve “over-purchased”  fresh fruits and vegetables consider freezing or preserving them for future use.  The National Center for Home Food Preservation has research-based instructions at https://nchfp.uga.edu
  11. If you have “over-purchased” canned foods that you won’t be able to use, check with your local food bank or food pantry, they may be in need of replenishment.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

Sodium Sneaks Up On You

I think most of us are aware of sodium in many canned foods and routinely purchase low sodium products. But sometimes it pops up where you least expect it.

I’m talking about commercially prepared salsa.

Salsa is running neck-to-neck with ketchup as the most popular condiment in the United States.  More and more I’m seeing recipes that use salsa as an ingredient in a recipe.  I recently made soup that used an entire jar of salsa to add a bolt of flavor.  The recipe encouraged cooks to purchase their favorite type of salsa—chunky, smooth, hot, mild, with beans or without…..whatever you wanted to add a punch to this soup recipe.

Not only did it add a punch —it added a lot of sodium. I sure was surprised. When was the last time you really read the Nutrition Facts on the label of a bottle of commercially made salsa? Yikes!  I think that it’s interesting to note that the word salsa comes from Latin for salt or salted.

Let’s get to the nitty-gritty—the Nutrition Facts label clearly read contains 210 milligrams of sodium per serving.  The kicker is the serving size.  Just two tablespoons is a serving. There were 24 servings in the bottle.  This is kind of like that old commercial for chips….who can eat just one serving of salsa?  Think about the last time you were at a Mexican restaurant and they put that basket of chips and bowl of salsa in front of you? Did you stop at two tablespoons?

The entire 24-ounce jar of chunky mild salsa contained 5250 milligrams of sodium.  The recipe made 12 one-cup servings—so the sodium provided by the salsa alone was 438 milligrams. This is on par with a serving of soup from a can.

So, what’s good about salsa?  It can be low in calories (10 per serving), low in sugar (1 gram) and contains some fiber (1 gram).

The amount of sodium in the diet has been linked to increased blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular disease in adults. The 2015-2020 US Dietary Guidelines tell us that adults and children ages 14 and older should limit sodium to less than 2,300 mg per day. This is about what you get in one teaspoon of salt.   For people with high blood pressure, a further reduction to 1,500 mg per day is recommended.

It sure is easy to grab a jar of salsa from the cupboard and use it as an ingredient. But like most processed food, it can backfire.  When shopping, read nutrition labels and try to find a product with less sodium per serving. Other obvious solutions would be to cut back on serving size. Another idea is to experiment and modify the recipe using low-salt tomatoes or tomato sauce and add your own herbs, peppers, and spices. At a restaurant opt for a fresh Pico de Gallo instead of an unknown (possible sodium bomb.) Trader Joe has a fire-roasted salsa that has no salt added and is especially nice for adding to dishes like soups (tip and favorite of Barbara Rice, RD, LD).

Making your own salsa can give you that flavor boost with limited (or no) sodium, too.  Not only do they provide fresh flavor but also some fresh vegetables to the diet.

Here is a free salsa recipe that is very easy to make and it contains no added salt:

https://foodandhealth.com/recipes.php/recipe/832

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

 

Consider Pasteurized Eggs

Eggs are considered potentially risky for some people.  The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) food code puts them on the TCS (foods that need time and temperature control for safety) list.

The major concern is Salmonella which ranks second (11%) of all foodborne illnesses in the United States. (Note:  Norovirus is first with 58%).

For the average healthy adult, the risk of getting sick from a Salmonella contaminated egg is very low. It is estimated that as few as three in 10,000 eggs are contaminated.  But it’s important to remember that children, the elderly, pregnant women and those people with weakened immune systems are more susceptible to a foodborne illness. I know a sanitarian that says she’ll eat an undercooked egg, but is careful not to give one to her children.

Typically, people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhea, fever, and abdominal cramps between 12 and 72 hours after infection. The illness usually lasts 4 to 7 days, and most individuals recover without treatment.  In some cases, diarrhea may be so severe that the patient needs to be hospitalized.

One way to reduce the risk from Salmonella bacteria in eggs is to cook them until they reach at least 145 degrees F.  At this temperature both the whites and yolks are firm. Yes, this means the yolks should not be runny. This rules out sunny-side-up, over-easy, soft boiled, runny scrambled and my poached egg. For dishes containing eggs like quiche and souffle, they should be cooked until an internal temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit is reached.

There is an alternative — but it does cost a little more — use pasteurized shell eggs. These eggs can be served undercooked without a risk. While these products look like and can be used like regular “shell” eggs, they have been heated to destroy potential bacteria. Look for them in the egg section of the grocery store.  But read the packages carefully, make sure the carton says “pasteurized”.  Some “specialty” shell eggs such as organic, lower cholesterol, higher vitamin — are NOT pasteurized. Usually, pasteurized eggs have a marking on the shell itself to help you not confuse it with “regular” eggs.

Other sources of pasteurized egg products include whole-out-of shell eggs (liquid eggs—frequently used in restaurants) and low-cholesterol egg products (made primarily with egg whites). These pasteurized products usually come in containers that look like little milk cartons and can be found both fresh and frozen in most grocery stores. They are great if you have a recipe that calls for an uncooked egg such as egg nog, hollandaise sauce, homemade mayonnaise, and uncooked ice cream and will be serving it to potentially “at-risk” individuals.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS. Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

References:

Food Safety Talk 156: Rank the Kato’s, June 16, 2018, http://foodsafetytalk.com/food-safety-talk/2018/6/16/food-safety-talk-156-rank-the-katos

Just a poached egg https://news.nutritioneducationstore.com/just-a-poached-egg/

Estimates of Foodborne Illness in the United States https://www.cdc.gov/foodborneburden/2011-foodborne-estimates.html

What Causes Food Poisoning?     Centers for Disease Control and Prevention                                                               https://www.cdc.gov/foodsafety/foodborne-germs.html

Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart  https://www.fsis.usda.gov/safetempchart

 

Cranberries for Next Year

Since cranberries are a must for most families at Thanksgiving, I bet there are cranberries in your house right now?

According to the Ag Marketing Research Center, Americans consume nearly 400 million pounds of cranberries per year (that’s about 2.3 pounds a person) and 20% of this is during Thanksgiving week.

Fresh whole cranberries are available in our markets now, but won’t be there for long. The season is September through January.

If you’re buying fresh berries, look for those that are red, ripe, plump, hard and shiny.  Before use, they should be sorted and washed. Take out any bruised, shriveled, soft, spongy or brown berries. White berries are safe to eat; they have just not developed their full color.

They are usually sold in 12-ounce bags that are equal to about 3 cups whole berries or 2 ½ cups of chopped. Fresh berries will keep in the sealed bag in the refrigerator for up to 2 months.

Since the season is so short, why not buy a couple of extra bags to freeze for use during the next year?  Instructions on the bag say to simply throw them in the freezer as purchased. These berries won’t be washed, so you’ll need to wash and sort the frozen berries just before use.  When removed from the freezer and thawed the cranberries will have a soft texture and are best used for cooking and baking.

The National Center for Home Food Preservation encourages rinsing and sorting the berries before freezing. They recommend placing the clean and dry berries on a tray so they will freeze individually and then pack loosely into freezer containers or bags.  Like other frozen fruits, cranberries should be added to recipes still frozen to prevent the juices from flowing out of the fruit.

Holiday Food Safety

Holiday Quiz

Here is our favorite recipe for Cranberry Sauce.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

 

Got Chickens?

Backyard poultry —cute little chicks and ducklings—are becoming popular with both rural and urban families.  This can be an educational opportunity for families as well as a way to have fresh eggs.

But, backyard poultry has been recently been linked to illnesses.  Over 1000 people in several states have become infected with different strains of Salmonella. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) at least 175 people have been hospitalized and two people have died.  Most of those who are ill are children younger than five years old.  Poultry can carry the bacteria and not appear sick themselves.

The CDC offers these recommendations to those who have backyard flocks: 

  • Wash your hands with soap and water right after touching backyard poultry and adults should supervise hand-washing by young children if they come in contact with the chickens and chicken equipment.
  • Children under five (and adults over 65 and those with chronic illnesses) should avoid handling chicks, ducklings or other poultry because their bodies may not have the ability to resist infection.
  • Children should not be allowed to play or eat in areas where the poultry roam.
  • Keep other household pets away from the chicken area—they may carry the bacteria to the family and home.
  • Don’t kiss or snuggle backyard poultry.
  • Keep chickens out of the garden. Fresh chicken droppings can be a risk of contamination to fresh produce.
  • Don’t let the poultry in your house.
  • Keep shoes on while working with poultry outside of the house. Remove those shoes before going into the house!
  • Wash the chicken’s equipment outside and not in the kitchen with the people’s food and dishes.

While as cute as can be, take care and be mindful of this potential risk. 

Cheryle Jones Syracuse. MS

Professor Emeritus

https://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/pets/farm-animals/backyard-poultry.html

 

Digital Influencers Lack Food Safety Expertise

“You can’t believe everything you see on the internet.” I think we’ve all said this to clients or classes at one time or another. But we all know that when someone wants a recipe or other information the first thing most people do these days is grab their phone and “Google it”.

But, what about food preservation?  This really isn’t the same as cooking chicken for dinner or finding a cake recipe. Preserving foods safely requires the following research-based practices.  The two most respected resources for food preservation are the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Guide to Home Canning https://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/publications_usda.html  and the National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) https://nchfp.uga.edu.

So the question is….do people looking for food preservation recipes on the internet find safe and research-based recipes?

This was the question a group of researchers from the Cooperative Extension, University of Maine asked. According to a news release this group of researchers specifically looked at recipes for home-canned salsa found on popular food blogs. They selected salsa recipes because it is a popular condiment in the United States and found 56 recipes for canning salsa on 43 different food blogs.

They developed a tool to compare the bloggers’ recipes with a known safe recipe for home-canned salsa  https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_salsa/choice_salsa.html  from the NCHFP.  The procedures and results of their study were published in Food Protection Trends Vol 39, No. 5.  http://www.foodprotection.org/publications/food-protection-trends/archive/2019-09-adherence-of-food-blog-salsa-recipes-to-home-canning-guidelines/

A quick summary of what they found: Only four or 7% of all the recipes met all of the researchers’ criteria for safety.

What’s the “take-home message” for us? 

  • Unless you’re a food preservation food scientist, this isn’t the place to be creative and develop your own recipes.
  • Food bloggers could be a great source of safe recipes and a good way to teach—not only food preservation but also food safety in general.
  • The researchers’ recommendations suggest that one thing educators can do is reach out to bloggers (they called them digital food influencers) with information on food preservation and safety and encourage them to recommend USDA and NCHFP resources to their readers and followers to help reduce risk.

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University

 

 

 

Getting to Know Barley

The most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that all adults eat at least half their grains as whole grains – that’s at least 3 to 5 servings of whole grains every day. The average American eats less than one daily serving of whole grains, and some studies show that over 40% of us never eat any whole grains. So, I’ve been on a mission to try different whole grains to add variety to our meals.

One whole grain that tends to be forgotten by many is BARLEY.

As a kid, I remember loving those little white fluffy things floating in my canned vegetarian vegetable soup.  That’s the barley.  If you are like me, this is the extent of your experience with barley, you may be surprised to know that it is the world’s fourth most important cereal crop after wheat, rice, and corn.

Barley can be prepared in many ways in addition to soups and stews. It used as a hot side dish or served as a cold salad. Or eaten like oatmeal. Barley flour is used in bread, pancakes, muffins, and cookies. If you’ve never eaten barley plain, the flavor can be best described as “rich” with a mild sweetness.

Nutritionally ¾ cup cooked barley contains 160 calories, 8 grams fiber and 6 grams protein. It is an excellent source of manganese, selenium, and thiamin and a good source of magnesium, phosphorus, copper, and niacin. There has been enough research documenting barley’s role in protecting heart health that the U.S. FDA allows barley foods to claim that it reduces the risk of coronary heart disease.

I went looking for barley at my local store.  It’s in the section with the dry beans and rice. I had to look high up on the shelf and found “pearled barley.”  Barley has a particularly tough inedible hull that adheres to the grain kernel. This hull is difficult to remove without losing some of the bran. The easiest way to get this off is to scrape or “pearl” it. That’s why it’s called “pearled barley.”  This process does remove some of the bran. Thusly, “pearled” barley is not technically a whole grain.

I contacted Kelly Toups, Director of Nutrition at the Whole Grains Council about only being able to find “pearled” barley on the grocer’s shelves. She responded that this is not a big problem because barley is different than other grains because the fiber is distributed throughout the grain kernel, rather than being concentrated in the bran.  This means that even pearled barley has a rather impressive amount of fiber.  Barley has 17% fiber which is the highest of all the whole grains. Comparing it to other whole grain foods: brown rice contains 3.5% ?ber, corn about 7%, oats 10% and wheat about 12%.

Toups told me that “whole grain barley does offer higher levels of many essential nutrients when compared with pearled barley.  One 45-gram serving of hulled (whole grain) barley has approximately an additional gram of fiber and protein, and has about twice as much magnesium as pearled barley.”

If you want to get the entire whole grain goodness of barley look for hulled barley or hulless barley. If you can’t find it at your store’s whole-grain aisle, barley can be purchased online.

Tips for cooking barley:  combine one cup of dry uncooked barley with three cups of liquid. This will expand to about 3 ½ cups of cooked grain. Whole grain barley can take 45-60 minutes to cook when simmered slowly. It can be helpful to use a rice cooker since you can cook almost unattended.

Reference:  Oldways Whole Grain Council, https://wholegrainscouncil.org

Cheryle Jones Syracuse, MS
Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University