Greetings Carnivores,
This post is answering a question for my beautiful, best friend Lynda who asked me a while ago …
“Why is Salmonella such a huge issue in restaurants?”
Ok so … the short (long) answer is this … restaurants or home kitchens … they’re all the same.
By way of a story (I LOVE telling stories) … gather around children.
Here we go …
A few years ago, I was working with non-eviscerated turkeys. NASTY job … but, I digress.
Now, I know I have been accused of being long winded so, for your sake I will keep the graphic details short (er) for you.
So, … the shop was selling a LOT of these non-eviscerated birds at Christmas … and we brought them in and sold them this way, non-eviscerated, head and feet on. Believe it or not, our Asian clientele actually preferred to buy them this way so, that’s the way we sold them. Anyway, the rest of our customers would ask us to ‘clean’ them.
Without going into a lot of nasty detail here, just let me tell you … I’d rather clean a toilet (with my bare hands) than clean a turkey. I don’t have a weak stomach but … it’s just not a very nice job.
And we cleaned HUNDREDS of them!!!
One afternoon after going home for the day, I noticed I wasn’t feeling very well. Thinking I was coming down with a seasonal flu bug, I started pounding the Echanicea and Vitamin C, followed by lots of fluids.
Whatever this “bug” was … it hit me like a sledgehammer. Within a few short hours I was feverish, projectile vomiting like the child from the Exorcist, had CRIPPLING STOMACH PAIN, EXPLOSIVE DIARRHEA and between trips to the bathroom and laying on the floor in a fetal position, … I was crying for my Mommy.
Two days later (I think) , barely able to get to the hospital … I was EXTREMELY dehydrated, couldn’t keep ANYTHING down and was STILL heading to the bathroom every 5 minutes, even though there was nothing left inside me.
Those blasted Turkeys got me … yup, I had Salmonellosis.
Looking back … I probably didn’t pay close enough attention to how CLEAN my hands were when I sat down to eat my lunch (best guess). Anyway, I lost ten pounds in 4 days.
The best part … because I had reported to the Hospital (not everyone does) AND, because I was a food handler, … I had to supply 3 (THREE) negative stool samples ( to be collected, by me … and sent to public health) before I could return to work.
HUMILIATING !!!!!!
But … there’s a lesson here for ALL of us …
I wrote a post awhile ago dealing with E. coli (click here), and in keeping with the whole food safety topic, today (as per: my graphic Turkey story) we’re going to deal with Salmonellosis.
Salmonellosis is an infection caused by the Salmonella bacteria. This is another one of those nasty bugs that is present in the digestive tract of animals and humans and, it causes thousands upon thousands serious illnesses every year resulting in hospitalizations and even deaths. Like E. coli, it is a fecal contamination and … the crazy thing about this one (and many others) is … it’s TOTALLY preventable. With proper cooking procedures And correct hygiene, we shouldn’t have to worry about getting sick this way.
So, as you can see … restaurants or home kitchens, it just doesn’t matter. It’s really that simple.
Make sure you wash your hands, clean and sanitize everything (cutting boards, work surfaces, utensils) between species (poultry/beef/pork/lamb … everything) AND … cook to the proper internal temperatures.
PLEASE be safe people … this stuff is just common sense.
The alternative is … you TOO will get to spend an ENTIRE WEEK getting to REALLY know how your plumbing works (inside and out … if you know what I mean) … 🙂 🙂 🙂
Keep the questions coming in folks, if I can’t answer them, I’ll dig deep and find the answer for you !! 🙂
In the meantime, stay tuned and … please click “follow” at the top of the page (Carnivore Confidential). You’ll get an email notice every time I write something new.
Until next time Carnivores, stay hungry and as usual, please follow my posts on Twitter @DougieDee and like and share them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/carnivoreconfidential
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