E-Coli stupidity

transmaster

AK Subscriber
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Now we have yet another Lettuce E. Coli outbreak. The stupidity of people. Doesn’t anyone sanitize their fresh fruits and vegetables anymore. As a Navy cook I was trained on how to handle fresh fruits and vegetables. A ship on a port visit would purchase fresh fruits and vegatables it was up to us to keep people from getting sick. A couple of drops of chlorine bleach in water soak the vegatable for a short time and rinse, done. It is even easier now there are cheap purpose made sanitizers that do a good job. With this simple precaution no one needs to get sick.

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I had E. Coli when I was 12, it was not fun. 2 weeks in the hospital, spent some time in intensive care. I was able to avoid dialysis, my cousin got it too and she wasn't as lucky as she was younger and her liver wasn't developed enough. I remember getting out, and trying to run and fell because I had been laying in a bed for 2 weeks.
 
E. Coli is really nasty and a person can be infected in so many ways. Sanatizing Fresh fruits and vegetables removes one such way. In Victorian times the reason why you wore gloves was to avoid touching things directly. Today you carry a hand sanitizer and use it often.
 
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transmaster tens of millions of military all over the world would say theres no such thing as a military cook.:jump: sorry couldn't resist.Actually when I was a military brat i use to sell newspapers at the serg mess in cfb borden and the food was actually pretty good considering they were serving a ton of people.The cooks would feed me on the sly as there was one idiot sergent who thought I was somehow pushing the army into bankruptcy by being fed .All the other guys were supernice even more so in the officers mess.
 
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E. Coli is really nasty and a person can be infected in so many ways. Sanatizing Fresh fruits and vegetables removes one such way. In Victorian times the reason why you wore gloves was to avoid touching things directly. Today you carry a hand sanitizer and use it often.

I don’t carry hand sanitizer, nor use it. We have people that at work, that every time they walk by a wall sanitizer, they “wash” their hands. These are the same people who advocate getting a flu shot every year, and they are the sickest people at work. They are always complaining about something.
 
Funny, people at MY work who get flu shots and take some reasonable precautions tend to avoid being sick. We don't go crazy with the sanitizer, but if people can just stay home when they're sick, try not to cough into their hands but into the crook of the elbow or a tissue, and avoid touching doorknobs and printers and all when their hands are contaminated, then we have less disease travelling around the office. It actually does work.

Back to the original topic...I thought that in the recent lettuce case, there was actually bacteria INSIDE the lettuce which means you can't wash it off. Same thing happened with those melons a couple years ago. Sewage sludge or manure put on the field, gets absorbed into the tissues, no way to clean it. In any case some of the Romaine was 'washed, ready to eat' products, too.
 
You can call people fools all you want, but untreated sewage has no place in food production. I for one wouldn't want to count on getting every square inch of an entire head of romaine sanitized to prevent myself or a friend/family member from getting e-coli poisoning. E-coli shouldn't be on the food in the first place and it's not that difficult to prevent it's being there.

I grew up with a friend who almost died at 2 due to e-coli poisoning. It's scary stuff.
 
I don’t carry hand sanitizer, nor use it. We have people that at work, that every time they walk by a wall sanitizer, they “wash” their hands. These are the same people who advocate getting a flu shot every year, and they are the sickest people at work. They are always complaining about something.

Agreed.

The heath food lovers and vegitarians are always sick too.

Maybe I’m lucky and blessed with good genes and health and the sick people are just genetically challenged and try to compensate with diet and chemicals.

I tend not to get stitches. Super glue and duct tape work fine.

I’ll get shots when I see a Dr for a checkup, but my checkups all show perfect numbers so I don’t sweat going in too often.


Clean food prep and proper cooking always worked for me. I’m a farm boy, we killed what we ate and processed in places that would make the inspectors faint.

Hot water, soap and a touch of bleach were our friends.

I think a huge problem now is the use of “safe” cleaning products in the home. They don’t seem to clean worth a damn, but if you drink it, you won’t get sick. Most of it seems like scented water.


When these e-coil things happen and millions of pounds of stuff are recalled, I always wonder if it’s really the supplier over reacting. Liability issues may be the reason for the huge recalls.

Better safe than sued.
 
Well, there are often a number of cases of illness reported and sometimes a death or two when recalls are announced, so you can't blame them. But other times it does seem to be 'no reports of illness'. Probably based on routine lab tests. We could give them credit for trying to prevent any illness or death...

Totally agree that untreated sewage has no place in food production. The operative word is 'untreated.' Manure, or sewage for that matter, if aerobically digested long enough (i.e. properly composted) is essentially free of pathogens. If they spray stuff that was not treated long enough or was held under conditions where the oxygen was used up and the bad stuff started to thrive again, that's when bad things happen. Frankly I think we can't afford the nutrient wastage and we have to find ways to harvest those nutrients and return them to the soil, but it has to be done properly and safely or the sickness and death will continue.
 
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