I’m a microbiologist and here’s what (and where) I never eat

[bennevisplace]

I'm not really a microbiologist, but the author of this article is theconversation.com/im-a-mi... and she makes some points about eating that might surprise you.

- An outdoor dinner party isn't necessarily safer for us than an indoor one

- Washed salads can harbour dangerous pathogens

- Sniffing food that's been in the fridge a while isn't a good way to tell if it's gone off

Hiding behind the "not all are that lucky" link in line 3 is a grimly titled paper: Estimating deaths from foodborne disease in the UK for 11 key pathogens. The estimate was 180 a year.

Food forethought 😐

[bennevisplace]

Addendum.

The estimated 180 deaths, mainly in the over 75s, represent the tip of a very large iceberg: 2.4 million cases of food poisoning each year in the UK.

Those with a compromised immune system may well have lower resistance to infection with norovirus or bacterial contamination of food. Perhaps the greatest risk comes to an individual whose medical condition means they don't have and can't generate enough neutrophils to deal with a bacterial infection in the normal way. In the worst case, the outcome is neutropenic sepsis, a life-threatening condition that can develop in an hour or two and needs emergency treatment.

I would expect deaths from sepsis to be recorded as such, even when behind it was a GI infection and contaminated food.

[bennevisplace]

"Finger lickin' not good" 😄