Read beyond the headlines to determine if your food is safe
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If you have been reading the news headlines on food lately you may be wondering what is safe to eat. Just when it seems we are getting over Mad Cow we are hit with toxin buildup in salmon and now the Avian flu in poultry.
With all the talk of food safety you'd think the grocery store meat isle is a mine field. The truth is, you have to read far beyond the headlines. Take the recent headline “Avian Flu Strikes BC farm”. If you read no further you might think a pandemic has broken out on the west coast. To get the full facts you should read the entire story. The virus found on the BC farm was different than the highly contagious virus found in Asia.
The risk of contracting the virus found in BC is considered “very low”, resulting in only mild respiratory symptoms in humans. Tainted food can make you sick and yes, can even be fatal in some circumstances.
However, before you begin to loose sleep over it, it's important to asses your relative risk. Take for example the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) virus which is responsible for Mad Cow disease. Ralph Klein the Alberta premier maintains that you are 1 million times more likely to be hit by a car than to contract a BSE-related illness.
If you want a less biased opinion you can go to the Health Canada website and read that there has been only one case of Mad Cow diagnosed in Canada and it is suspected that the disease was contracted in the UK. If you are still not convinced and you want to reduce the minimal risk even further you can choose boneless steak and roasts over processed beef products. BSE is in highest concentrations in cow brain tissue and spinal cord tissue. There is a greater chance of getting BSE contaminated meat in processed beef products such as minced meat, burgers, hot dogs and pates. Just remember the risk incredibly small even in these products. So if beef and poultry are low risk, what about the recent study condemning farmed salmon? If you missed the February headlines, a study published in the journal Science reported higher levels of toxins in farmed salmon. If you followed the story a little deeper you would have learned that the levels found were well within the safe limits set by Health Canada. Furthermore they measured contaminants in fish samples that included the skin. Contaminants tend to buildup highest concentrations in the skin. The benefits to eating salmon far outweigh the risks. Instead of curbing your intake of salmon with it's excellent Omega-3 fat content, simply avoid eating the skin. That shouldn't be too difficult. It's better to focus our attention less on the flashy headlines and divert more attention to our habits in the kitchen. You have a far greater risk of getting sick from improper food handling at home than from sophisticated "super viruses". You can visit www.eatwelleatsafe.ca for tips on how to reduce risk of food borne illness. Some very simple steps include refrigerating or freezing your meat promptly after grocery shopping and keeping your raw meat on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator to avoid cross-contamination with other fresh foods. It's also a good idea to use a separate cutting board exclusively for cutting raw meat. You can even buy different colour cutting boards to help keep your veggies separate from your raw meat. Of course, wash your hands and all utensils promptly after touching raw meat. Try to keep in perspective that Canada has one of the safest food supplies in the world. The recurring news on food safety is testament to our vigilance. Just keep in mind the headlines are simply designed to get your attention. You often have to dig much deeper to decide if a change in your diet is truly warranted.