Lifestyle Choices

Infection

Certain food poisoning bacteria other than staphylococci can infect food and grow in it without detectable taste or smell. Then, when the food is eaten, these germs gain access to the gut of the consumer, multiply there and cause a typical gastroenteric form of poisoning.

An example of this type of infection is that caused by the Salmonella group of bacteria. These germs are normally carried in the gut by pigs, poultry, cows, bullocks, sheep, domestic animals and rodents, and, to a lesser extent, human beings. Eggs (especially duck), egg powder and milk can also be affected.

These three examples briefly outline the main chemical and microbic causes of food poisoning.

The hygiene hazards in the kitchen run by the housewife with a comparatively small turnover of meals and utensils will, of course, be generally far less than those in large kitchens with a huge turnover and attendant staff problems. But there can be very real problems in the home, and the first of these concerns personal hygiene.

For the housewife this not only affects herself but also everyone else in the home, since she is the common link between them all. Obviously she will be aware of the risks of transferring any possible infection from her own person into food through handling, hair and clothing; and there is also the possible transmission of infection via similar sources from other members of the household. Undoubtedly, the most important vehicles for carrying infection to food in the home are the hands.

Hands

Staphylococcal food poisoning can start from infected hands. Hands in contact with food must be free of any septic spots, cuts or rashes. Sodden or dirty linen bandages do not provide adequate protection, and if someone with a hand or finger lesion has to go on handling food, waterproof dressings must be used.

After using the lavatory, hands must always be carefully washed in hot water with soap. After handling and preparing vegetables, which are often soiled with manured earth, the hands should be washed.

The Kitchen

Obviously the better planned and equipped a kitchen is, the easier work becomes and the simpler it is to keep clean

It does not follow, however, that good hygiene cannot be achieved in an old- fashioned kitchen or that eye-appeal modernity will automatically ensure good hygiene. The questions most housewives will want answered are these:

How much scrubbing down is necessary in a kitchen?

Do tea towels need boiling every day? Do food utensils actually hold any contamination?

To the bacteriologist all these questions centre on cleaning and the answer is: All surfaces with which raw food has been in contact require thorough cleaning and so do all utensils which have been used for the preparation and cooking of food.

Dishcloths

Before cooking, meat is freely handled and placed upon or cut up on surfaces. Cooking sterilises, but what of the cook’s hands, and the cloth which may have been used to wipe over the meat and also to mop over any surfaces with which the meat came into contact? Here, obviously, are ways of spreading infection.

Vegetables are often soiled with mud and manure, yet they are introduced right into the kitchen, often on to a table or draining board. After they have been prepared, the surface on which they have been may get a quick wipe with the dishcloth— again a possible means of spreading infection.

On some days the pots and pans may get particularly sticky and require a lot of rubbing around during cleaning. The hot water supply may not be all that one might desire, so the dishcloth will pick up food residues. Then, possibly, flies from the dustbin outside alight on the dishcloth left on the side of the sink—it can happen. Suddenly a basin is wanted quickly in which to make a custard, or artificial cream. Perhaps this particular basin has not been used for some time and is dusty. The dishcloth is rapidly wiped round the inside of the basin, and then warm custard or synthetic cream is put into it. This may happen in the morning and the custard or cream will not be eaten until evening. So, any infection which may have been transferred from the dishcloth to the basin now has a good medium in which to grow for perhaps as long as eight hours.

Under such conditions, disease germs can flourish and food poisoning may be the result. Also, sometimes cutlery is hastily wiped over with a dishcloth that may not be too clean another way of transferring disease germs.

The dishcloth should always look white and clean, never greasy and stained, for in that condition it is certain to carry infection. To keep dishcloths in a satisfactory

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