05.mar.07
Times-News (ID)
Steve Crump
http://www.magicvalley.com/articles/2007/03/05/features/image/107524.txt
TWIN FALLS -- Scott Martin, professor of food microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was quoted as saying in this story that, "Ninety percent of sparrows carry salmonella. If a sparrow defecates when it's flying over a field, you're potentially at risk of salmonella if you eat something grown in that field."
Tom Shanahan, spokesman for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, was quoted as saying, "(Food-borne illnesses from) spinach, peanut butter and strawberries - none have been prevented by the consumer. They were contaminated before they reached the consumer. There is public sentiment building that we need better national food oversight to ensure food safety."
Cheryl Becker, epidemiologist with the Twin Falls-based South Central District Health, was cited as saying that in south-central Idaho, food poisoning rarely comes from unusual sources and as elsewhere in Idaho and the U.S., many cases are traced to food handlers who don't properly wash their hands after using the restroom, to improperly cooked food, or to cross-contamination, adding, "The best way to prevent it is still good food-handling practices."
The story adds that public-health workers preach the importance of washing raw produce before it's eaten, but Martin was cited as saying that may not help much, adding, "Washing will cut down the number of E.coli (bacteria), but it won't eliminate them. The microbes attach to the surface of produce in a sticky biofilm, and washing just isn't very effective. Another problem with this pathogen is that it has a very low infective dose. It only takes between 10 and 100 cells to cause an infection, so it's impossible to achieve a safe level of the pathogen once it gets on the product. At this point, we need to concentrate on avoiding a crop's exposure to the pathogen as the produce is being grown."