Risk-Based Assessment

Hello all, I am back with a very important topic when it comes to the Food Universe (I really need to start calling it something shorter. The ”foodiverse”?  Maybe not). I am here to talk to you about food safety.  My name is Eric and I am a food safety professional that does not always act like one at home.  What do I mean by that?  Well think of it this way; If you were to go to your favorite bistro and see the chef drop your $50 steak on the ground and within, let’s say, 5 seconds he picks it up and places it back on the plate would you eat it?  Let’s say that you were out for breakfast and ordered your favorite eggs Benedict and a great nice tall, spicy, loaded bloody Mary and during your first sip or first bite you find a hair.  What would you do?

Now replace the bistro and the breakfast joint with your home and your budget and lovely family? Would you eat that steak (your floors are clean right?  Would you just pull out that hair of your wife’s (you know that you two have knoodled and accidently gotten worse things in your mouth and lived)?  So why do you send the food back and complain when you dine out?  Well if you are not the father of a high school friend of mine that liked to complain every time in order to always get a free meal then you probably do it because you do not know where they have been and how the establishment, (and their employees), are cleaned.  You know how well you have cleaned your house and yourself.  Plus you are familiar with your own brand of germs and bacteria. So, what is the thing that makes the decision so different based on the circumstances? – Risk-based assessment.

How long has that fantastic Mongolian beef been in the fridge?  You know that you should follow the “3 and out” rule but it has only been 5 days but it is the best in the city and it was expensive.  Is it worth the risk of a possible pseudomonas infection? Is the risk worth it to you to spend the entire next day trying to figure out which end gets dibs on the porcelain throne for one last bite?   

Now back to my “confession”.  I am big on risk-based decisions. I am a risky guy when it comes to me.  When I am cooking for others, especially children, I am much more conservative when determining the risk.  Children have a much less developed immune system and you never know what the situation with your guests might be. 

So, now it is your turn. What do you do that is a risky move when it comes to the preparation of food?  Do you leave your potato salad or Thanksgiving Day turkey sit out for 2-3 hours before you put it in the refrigerator?  It is ok to tell. It might even be therapeutic.  Admission is the first step to improvement because you never know what you’ve got until you know what you’ve got.

I am going to start adding a little bit of food safety to each of my subsequent blog posts and maybe I can help keep at least 1 of the 76 million Americans that get food borne illnesses from becoming one of the 350 thousand that end up in the hospital or, even worse, one of the 5000 that die from these same little beasts. 

CHALLENGE UPDATE:  The chocolate-laced lasagna is in the crock-pot as I write this.  I will get the FoodSciFamily’s opinion and add to this post when the jury is done deliberating.

Take care all and stay hungry and safe, Foodie Friends,

Eric (the FoodSciGuy)