Food safety

[cws451]

I see on the news all the time about food that make people sick. Most recently the listeria outbreak with the ice cream that caused three people to die.. How does a small scale homesteader make sure the food that feeds his family is safe for consumption?

[TnAndy]

Starts with basic sanitation. Wash your hands regular. Keep things cold that should be kept cold or hot if they should be kept hot.

My wife is a former Home Ec teacher and she is a nut for clean work environment. For example, when we cut meat, she will bleach down all the work surfaces, make us wear clean aprons, changing frequently, and so on.

It's really just due diligence. One of the reasons we do process so much of our food at home is we got tired of going places and seeing what a lousy job they did of just the basics. It's actually a wonder more people don't get sick than do. (or maybe it's just under reported)

[Snowfan]

Store bought food? Good luck. Planted, harvested, processed and packaged by strangers concerned primarily about profit. Sometimes there are few, if any, options, though.

[cws451]

Originally Posted by TnAndy

Starts with basic sanitation. Wash your hands regular. Keep things cold that should be kept cold or hot if they should be kept hot.

My wife is a former Home Ec teacher and she is a nut for clean work environment. For example, when we cut meat, she will bleach down all the work surfaces, make us wear clean aprons, changing frequently, and so on.

It's really just due diligence. One of the reasons we do process so much of our food at home is we got tired of going places and seeing what a lousy job they did of just the basics. It's actually a wonder more people don't get sick than do. (or maybe it's just under reported)

I have watched a couple documentary on netflix about large commericial farms and it is disturbing what is done with the food we eat.

[TnAndy]

You don't have to go to Netflix.....go to any local burger joint. Watch the employees go to the bathroom, follow them in. Lot of 'em will do their business, and bypass the sink on the way back to work. Seen it many times.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by cws451

I have watched a couple documentary on netflix about large commericial farms and it is disturbing what is done with the food we eat.

Sanitation indeed is paramount. I operate what would be called a large commercial farm, and I can tell y'all first hand, that sanitation and cleanliness, withdrawal periods, rate regulations, accuracy of application, etc. have NEVER been better. Once what I produce leaves my farm, I can not be responsible for what is done to it from there on. And depending on the documentary, there are some that are extremely, well, extreme. Like Food Inc. and the like. I definitely agree with the side of the story where we have a lot of over-processed foods. If someone takes my wheat, and uses four or five other basic ingredients to make a loaf of bread like we do with it in our kitchen, is a different story from what happens if my flour makes its way to a cereal company which uses ingredients I have never heard of, much less pronounce! lol

But truly, in raising ones own food, basic cleanliness, and quick processing/packaging etc. are paramount to the best quality/safeness. When we butcher chickens, moose, or lamb, or make salsa, freeze squash or beans, etc., we don't leave liver juices on the cupboard from yesterdays turkey slaughter, or fish scales and blood from our fishing trip the night before. A lot of it is common sense. If I pull beets from our heavily manured garden, I wash the dang things well.

Forgot to mention, in the example of the OP, listeria is not going to be a farm caused problem in ice cream.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by TnAndy

You don't have to go to Netflix.....go to any local burger joint. Watch the employees go to the bathroom, follow them in. Lot of 'em will do their business, and bypass the sink on the way back to work. Seen it many times.

Exactly. I mean, exactly.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by Snowfan

Store bought food? Good luck. Planted, harvested, processed and packaged by strangers concerned primarily about profit. Sometimes there are few, if any, options, though.

You are darn tooting those of us who plant and harvest worry about profit. Just like anyone who makes a living, we need to have enough to live on. Profit is necessary in primary agriculture, or we are in big trouble. I mean, who will farm the land if there is no profit? The alternative to family farms, which make up 96% of the farms in the US, is Cargill, Bunge, or ADM owning and farming the land. Which is preferable? Which will care more?

Once it gets to the processing and packaging stage, I doubt very much that the workers give a darn about their companies profit. I would therefore argue, that the farmers have a higher stake in doing things right and according to rules laid out, than some floor worker processing flour into noodles.

Yes, I agree, our food system has issues. But point your finger accurately please.

[wr]

Originally Posted by Snowfan

Store bought food? Good luck. Planted, harvested, processed and packaged by strangers concerned primarily about profit. Sometimes there are few, if any, options, though.

I struggle to understand who's going to feed the nation if farmers don't turn a profit. They banks aren't interested in financing capital loss ventures.


Beyond the lesson in economics, I feel that the more hands that touch food before it reaches the plate, the better.

I raise beef and I'm very comfortable eating my own beef and quite honestly, I'm comfortable eating meat from my local butcher because it's been handled minimally.

I'm less comfortable eating hamburger that comes from a big plant because hundreds of hands touch it and even more hands are involved in making sausages, hot dogs and premade patties.

[Wendy]

I feel that the more hands that touch food before it reaches the plate, the better.

Don't you mean the less hands that touch it, the better??

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by cws451

I see on the news all the time about food that make people sick. Most recently the listeria outbreak with the ice cream that caused three people to die.. How does a small scale homesteader make sure the food that feeds his family is safe for consumption?

Welcome to the forum. For the beginning homesteader, food safety is a huge learning process. Hopefully, you learned something from working alongside Mom and Dad when you were growing up, or from a 4-H leader..... It also helps to take that knowlege and build your homestead buildings into separate killing, butchering, and processing facilities, leaving your kitchen sink for just the use of fixing your family's meals......

Luckily, today, we have Google, and plugging in words like, "Food Safety & Preservation" into that will get you a wealth of reading--especially from all the state home extension offices.

This one is typical: http://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/food/food_safety/

It's a simple start, and there are many more like it--and don't forget the Ball Blue Book .....again, welcome to the forum

geo

[Terri]

I wash my hands with soap EVERY time I visit the henhouse. I also do not use fresh manure to fertilize short plants like lettuce and bell peppers, though I will use it on corn, blackberries, and trees.

Sunlight and air tend to kill bacteria, and my yard has a great deal of both!

[JoePa]

When you go out to eat you have no idea what you are eating and who prepared the meal for you - I think if you could look into the kitchen you would never eat out - there's some guy sweating in a dirty tee shirt with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and wiping his nose with his forearm which are covered with tattoos making up your meal with a lot of outdated stuff - enjoy - oh - he just came out of the bathroom after taking a good healthy ------

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by JoePa

When you go out to eat you have no idea what you are eating and who prepared the meal for you - I think if you could look into the kitchen you would never eat out - there's some guy sweating in a dirty tee shirt with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and wiping his nose with his forearm which are covered with tattoos making up your meal with a lot of outdated stuff - enjoy - oh - he just came out of the bathroom after taking a good healthy ------

Nuh-Uh, not Doris in her gourmet kitchen at the Teapot Dome.....

geo

[haley1]

don't worry, pretty soon they will have vaccines for listeria and e cloi

[wr]

Originally Posted by Wendy

Don't you mean the less hands that touch it, the better??

Yes, I did mean less hands is better, unfortunately I was using my iphone and occasionally, autocorrect thinks it's smarter than I am

[wr]

Originally Posted by JoePa

When you go out to eat you have no idea what you are eating and who prepared the meal for you - I think if you could look into the kitchen you would never eat out - there's some guy sweating in a dirty tee shirt with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and wiping his nose with his forearm which are covered with tattoos making up your meal with a lot of outdated stuff - enjoy - oh - he just came out of the bathroom after taking a good healthy ------

I'm hoping most places are food safe aware and have been inspected regularly but I'm not sure that there is anything unsafe or unclean about tattoos.

[Yvonne's hubby]

Originally Posted by wr

I'm hoping most places are food safe aware and have been inspected regularly but I'm not sure that there is anything unsafe or unclean about tattoos.

I am pretty sure the same applys to the cigarette, or sweat for that matter. I know several folks who work in restaurants and they are all required to go outside for a cigarette break. I havent heard of anyone getting sick much less dying from a little sweat.

[wr]

Originally Posted by Yvonne's hubby

I am pretty sure the same applys to the cigarette, or sweat for that matter. I know several folks who work in restaurants and they are all required to go outside for a cigarette break. I havent heard of anyone getting sick much less dying from a little sweat.

The law is pretty stringent about smoking in a commercial kitchen by my ex mother in law used to cook with a smoke hanging out her mouth.

Her smoking didn't scare me nearly as bad as some of the unique meals prepared while under the influence of liberal doses of Canadian Club Whiskey.

[Skandi]

Personaly I think a lot of people overthink it. time is your enemy, if food is going to be sitting around, say in a fridge, or a icecream freezer (not cold enough to store in) or kept warm for long periods you are likely to have issues. At home that isn't so much of a problem. I don't keep dinner warm for 4 hours before I serve it.
I am more carefull about things I am going to preserve, but not terribly carefull about any of it, I'm a firm believer that if you are really carefull all the time and disinfect everything, then when either you miss something, or something happens outside of your control and you do meet a dreaded germ.. you're in trouble, big trouble. I'ld rather meet low level bugs at home and therefore be able to cope when I run into that trouble than disinfect things. I won't ALLOW anti bacterial products in the house. I believe they are very detrimental to health.
Saying that, if I have any doubt about say a tin.. or a jar of somthing, it's going straight out, not worth taking that risk.