Food Safety Tip

Last week, I took a class on food law, which also involved subject matter experts on food safety and recalls. Here is one guy's list of the only three things he will never consume:

1) Raw Oysters
This is not news. Everyone knows that eating these things is Russian Roulette.

2) Sprouts
Commercial packaged sprouts have a very long history of being contaminated with pathogens. The growing conditions for sprouts are the ideal growing conditions for all kinds of nasty bacteria. There is no point in buying them; other veggies are better, cheaper, and safer. Sprouting your own seeds can be a good source of cheap vegetables, but only if your kitchen is clean and you know what you are doing, and even then you should cook them well and not eat them raw.

3) Carrot Juice
This was the surprise. Carrot juice is often contaminated with botulism, and higher levels of botulism have been found in this stuff than anything else he has ever tested. Botulism lives in the soil, juice is not sterilized nearly as well as canned foods, and carrot juice containers are a very good botulism incubator. So if you like carrot juice, you should be making your own instead of buying it.