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Q.

What food safety tips can reduce potential exposure to E.coli?

Related Topics: Exposure, Food
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Answers From Experts & Organizations (1)

Elaine Magee, MPH, RDElaine Magee, MPH, RDSUCCESS!
Elaine Magee, MPH, RD
Nutrition
54 Answers
295 Helpful Votes
8 Followers
A.

Produce can become contaminated with salmonella, shigella, or E. coli during growing, harvesting, processing, storing, or shipping. It’s particularly important that you wash your spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, and melons before handling or cutting them.
 
Wash all fruits and vegetables under running water before eating, cutting or cooking, unless they’re packaged and marked “prewashed.” Produce with a tough outer skin, like melons and cucumbers, can be scrubbed with a clean produce brush and warm soapy water before you cut into them — just in case there is bacteria on the peel.  

Unwashed hands are the most common cross-contamination agent between raw meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, unwashed vegetables and ready-to-eat foods, according to a study on food handling behaviors published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
 
Wash your hands longer and more often than you think you should. Scrub hands together vigorously for at least 20 seconds with hot soapy water. It takes that long for the soap and scrubbing to remove some of the germs.

This answer should not be considered medical advice...down arrowThis answer should not be considered medical advice and should not take the place of a doctor’s visit. Please see the bottom of the page for more information or visit our Terms and Conditions.up arrow

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Read the Original Article: New E.coli Strain In Europe
 
 
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