FOOD SAFETY Q&A

​Q: I ate a six-day old watermelon. It was cut and wrapped in the fridge. It didn't smell, look or taste bad. Am I going to be okay?

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A: Melons generally present three concerns.

1. If you cut it open and chop it up, make sure you first wash the dust, soil and old manure from the rind where it was standing on the ground.

2. If it was chopped and packaged by someone in a back room at the at the supermarket, I would avoid that if possible. Did they wash their hands after having diarrhoea?  (They may have had hepatitis A, norovirus, or an E. coli infection but still came to work because they needed the pay!)

3. When left in your refrigerator, all fruits will start to undergo a yeast fermentation. Nothing really harmful, but it's a process of decay, and gives a tingling sensation on the tongue. Later, after the yeast, the molds can occur, and they should be avoided.

So provided YOU did the cutting and slicing, and you washed it off first, all should be well if the melon looks and tastes OK.  (Applies to cantaloupe and all melons) 

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Q: I Usually buy bags of pre-washed chopped lettuce mix.  Can I assume this is safer than buyng whole packages of lettuce?

 

Q: Regardless of the manufacturer's claim that the lettuce, spinach or other greens have been washed, ALWAYS re-wash again, very thoroughly.  In fact if you want to be extra careful, avoid pre-cut lettuce greens altogether.  There is evidence that E. coli bacteria cling very effectively to the cut leaves, meaning that washing may not be as effective as you may have supposed.  Whole leaf lettuce should be washed carefully, especially if it is labelled "organic". Such produce is more likely to be contaminated with microbes from animal manure used as fertilizer. (Yes I know it is supposed to be properly composted, but nobody checks what's left in the soil!).

The contamination and colonization is more likely to be during the washing of the cut leaves. Here’s some references:

• Attachment of Escherichia coli O157:H7 to lettuce leaf surface and bacterial viability in response to chlorine treatment as demonstrated by using confocal scanning laser microscopy - PubMedNational Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)

• Comparison of the attachment of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Listeria ...Attachment of each microorganism (approximately 10(8) CFU/ml) on the surface and the cut edge of lettuce leaves was determined. E.National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov)

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Q: Is it safe to eat sprouted yams?

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A: If you mean SWEET POTATOES (Genus Ipomoea), (these are NOT yams), the answer is YES! The greenery sprouting from the sweet potato is cooked and eaten in many regions of the world, and is quite tender and delicious!

The many varieties of the ‘ordinary’ potato belong to the genus Solanum. The tubers are edible of course, but any green parts (green skin, stem, leaves, etc.) contains varying quantities of certain alkaloids that can interfere with your nervous system, and can cause serious illness in large quantities. Deadly nightshade is one of the same family of plants.

The true YAMS, are a very diverse group of plants, the Dioscorea. In many cases the foliage is a valuable food, in others not.

The Taro (Colocasia esculenta) produces large leaves (Dasheen) which are edible when cooked. These and several other varieties of greens from a wide range of plants are called Calalloo, and enjoyed in many parts of the World.

Because of the naming that varies with language, region, and culture, you need to be sure what plant you are asking about.

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Q: Why are nitrates considered bad in meat but appear to be good in fruits or vegetables?

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A: Nitrites (in combination with nitrates that become reduced to nitrites) have been added to meat products such as bacon, hams, and salamis for ages. They inhibited some of the bacterial growth (long before anyone thought of refrigerators), and added a distinctive taste. In recent years we have found that the amino acids in the protein can combine with nitrites to create a family of nitroso compounds, mainly nitrosamines, many of which have an association with cancer. The nitrosamines can form in the cooking process (that’s why bacon has a safer formulation for than ham and salami that are not heated to the same extent), or in the stomach.

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So what about plants? Plants have nitrates naturally occurring in their structure, and often the concentration of nitrates from plant foods far exceeds that in meats. Yet this source of nitrate does not appear to be associated with tumor formation. The reason now appears that in the presence of ascorbic acid, the nitrosamines do not form. Lettuce, green leafy vegetables, and citrus fruits all contain ascorbic acid, and this appears to inhibit the nitrosamine formation.

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The take-home message? … Always include some ascorbic acid when you eat nitrite-preserved meats; Orange juice with your breakfast bacon, lots of lettuce with your ham sandwich, tomato or sauerkraut with your salami on rye, or a vit-C tab at the same time as any of these. Oh, and don’t over-cook bacon.

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