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For the last 20 years, attorney Bill Marler has represented victims of nearly every large foodborne illness outbreak in the United States, securing $600,000,000 for victims of E. coli, Salmonella, and other illnesses linked to tainted food. Marler is an outspoken advocate for food safety, and maintains the Food Safety Site and the award-winning Marler Blog. He's picked up a safety tip or two along the way - as well as a definitive personal do-not-eat list. Bill Marler: 6 tips for safer food shopping, storage, preparation and buying 1. Always mistrust claims that some type of food is safer or better for you than other food. Someone is usually hiding something from you. 2. Be on guard and do not be afraid to wash your hands or wipe down a grocery cart. 3. Pay attention to cross-contamination in your shopping and your kitchen. Use the plastic bags in the store to keep food separate. 4. Keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold. 5. Wash your produce well and cook your meat even hotter. 6. When going out to eat, it is OK to check the restaurant's safety record and to send back food that is not properly prepared. Your life may depend on it. Marler's do-not-eat list People ask me all the time what I do not eat. Here is my list: raw milk, unpasteurized juices, sprouts, ground meat of any kind, bagged leafy green and food that is processed so much that you question if it is food. Information in the gallery above provided by CNN Health Consumer resources: Previously: More on food poisoning from CNN Health and all foodborne illness coverage on Eatocracy Watch CNN Newsroom weekdays 9am to 3pm ET and weekends. For the latest from the CNN Newsroom click here.
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Wash your hands both before and after meal. Select the food based upon your health and do not over cook the food.
This dude is an idiot, period.
CNN got rooked on this one. This guy gets free advertising. CNN should have consulted some real experts.
The best advice FROM a lawyer is "don't trust a lawyer". And even that bit of advice will cost you !
Glad I read this! I know I always take all of my advice regarding what to eat from lawyers!
Wash your hands frequently. Buy, clean and cook your own food. Eat out rarely. Pretty simple – am 52 and never had food poisoning.
I am an attorney and my father is food scientist/microbiologist. Always defer to the scientist on questions like this. Attorneys are not the trained professionlals with expertise in the field. They have to understand the legal concepts and much of the material in order to be effective at their job, but are by no means experts themselves.
Wait, so how does his get his green leafy stuff then? Personally I was getting food poisoning almost twice a year in the four or so years before I stopped eating meat. I was mainly a chicken person and I used to eat out a lot (busy early-twenties lifestyle, no time to cook). The last time it happened was the result of some chicken tikka masala in a very upscale Indian restaurant in lower Manhattan. After that I gave up all meat except for (wild-caught) fish. I also consume green smoothies daily made with spinach and kale from a bag (Trader Joe's). I have not had food poisoning since becoming a pescatarian, and that happened in May 2008. Not to say that fish doesn't have its risks. Just relating a personal story since I noticed such a huge difference in my own tummy :)
Buying fresh leafy greens, that are not pre-bagged. Pre-bagged produce is often tainted. I only buy fresh produce, never anything that comes pre-cut in packaging. Why would you want to, it only takes a second to wash and cut a fresh bunch of spinach or kale, and it tastes better fresh.
Funny that the graphic on listeria notes 500 deaths annually by listeria, citing the cdc. But the cdc website (here: http://www.cdc.gov/listeria/statistics.html ) denotes that the largest outbreak of listeria amounted to only 8 deaths.
Although implied by this same graphic, there is no evidence that listeriosis has ever been caused by raw milk in the United States (see Steingarten 2002).
He won't eat certain types of foods because they might be contaminated, but he recommends sending food back in a restaurant if it's not properly prepared?? Doesn't he know what some restaurant cooks DO to food that's sent back?? Hint: You'd never ever want o eat it...
Kay, if you're concerned about what restaurants are doing to your food if you send it back, go to a different place. You probably don't want to or shouldn't be eating there anyway.
While food safety and food poisoning are serious issues, many people who think they've had food poisoning probably have not, especially if they claim it was from a restaurant. Eating somewhere and then getting sick does not constitute food poisoning. It could be any number of things, from previously being ill, to transmitted infections from workers to customers, to just plain food not agreeing with you. Health departments are usually pretty good an investigating these kinds of things, and often will shut places down if they believe practices have led to food poisoning. It's not naive on my part, it's just the truth. If you think you've had food poisoning, see a physician. If it turns out to be true, then trace the source. It's somewhat comical to see people post on loads of restaurant reviews online that they got food poisoning there, which, if true, would probably mean the place would have shut down for a while or permanently. Health departments do not take these matters lightly.
This is completely true. When I used to work in the food industry we would get people calling and threatening to sue because of food poisoning thirty minutes after they ordered their food and it happened all too often. food poisoning takes at minimum 4 hours and as long as 8 hours to start showing symptoms. If you're getting sick to your stomach within half an hour, you probably just ate too much, too fast. There was one guy that was especially hostile because his five year-old kid got "food poisoning." He didn't think that maybe any five year-old would get sick if they eat an entire foot long hotdog covered in chili and cheese plus a side of fried potatos plus a milkshake.
How is this guy a "pro" food expert? His claim to fame is as an attorney who has won suits against food manufacturers. We don't refer to ambulance chasers as "health care professionals" and we shouldn't mistake a lawyer for an expert on food safety, either.
But he had to have studied food safety extensively - lots of reading and interviewing experts - in order to win those cases. So he may not be a doctor or nutritionist, but I'd still listen to him.
I am an attorney and I agree.
Funny that she won't drink unpasteurized juices. I won't drink them if they've been pasteurized. It kills the nutrition.
I think she's misinformed and/or misguided.
Sprouts are one of my favorite foods. I haven't eaten it since I heard of the ecoli risks, but I do wonder if growing sprouts at home can be done safely. Probably not, but, meh.
there's nothing inherently dangerous about sprouts. its the packaging/letting them sit around for an unknowable amount of time that makes them unsafe. you'll be fine if you grow them yourself.
Check out the data from the German sprout food poisoning epidemic. If I remember correctly, it was ecoli on sprouts grown in high humidity at warm temperature.... a great bacteria incubation environmnet and also easily duplicated at various times of the year.
Yeah, just make sure the seeds are cleaned and come from a trusted source.
I'm surprised that sashimi wasn't on his list – but I suppose worms don't kill you, they just make you wish someone else would.
I agree with him on principle though about his no-eat list. Ground meat isn't the best, esp. if it's undercooked or poor quality. I have long suspected that a substantial portion of Americas famous tummy troubles for which we gobble stomach pills is caused by mild food poisoning from the junk we eat.
This isn't to say that I'm a food snob. Cook ground meat super well, if you can, buy whole beef and have it ground.
Also, raw milk produced by a home-owned cow, or a small reputable dairy is likely safe. It's the mechanized large scale farming practices that I think cause a lot of problems.
Still, the best meat is whole meat and less of it. Rice, beans and peanut butter have sustained many fine people either by preference or economic necessity.
Sadly, fruit and veg tainted by stuff seems increasingly to be a major culprit in cases of food-bourne illness. That isn't so easy to put on a list. But it's why salad bars top MY personal list of no-eat zones.
Worms? In sashimi? What sort of infectious or parasitic worms affecting humans are present in saltwater fish? Please be specific.
I consume sushi regularly – I'm a chef, and my boyfriend is a sushi chef – so I'm afraid of raw fish. But it's true that saltwater fish CAN be infected with parasites... like Paragonimus westermanii ("Oriental lung fluke") from crab... Capillaria philippinensis and Anisakis simplex ("herring/whale worm") from various saltwater fish, especially mackerel... phocanemea (a type of roundworm)...
Besides, not all seafood used in sashimi is saltwater seafood. On the contrary, salmon, snapper (can be fresh or salt), yellowtail, freshwater eel, and varieties of crustacean and mollusk are freshwater. I stick with saltwater fish.
*NOT afraid of raw fish. Haha.
Worms? What sort of infectious or parasitic worms affecting humans are present in saltwater fish? Please be specific.
i have been eating and preparing food since i was in junior high school. since i am now an adult, my logic tells me i am a qualified food safety handler.
"For the last 20 years, attorney Bill Marler has represented victims of nearly every large foodborne illness outbreak in the United States, securing $600,000,000 for victims of E. coli, Salmonella, and other illnesses linked to tainted food."
People sue for anything. You got sick get over it.
Sorry. Not when its gross negligence. I almost died from salmonella when I was just 23. I was sick for six day, throwing up and the other end, losing 20 pounds in 6 days. Then I went to the hospital. Doctor said if I waited one more day I would have died. If you are in the BUSINESS of handling food, you are responsible for your customers safety.
Not to excuse wherever you got the illness but...Why did you wait 6 days to seek medical help? If you went to the doctor on day 2 or 3 you would not have faced the risk you did.
My mother was in the emergency room the day after she started getting sick and died an week later anyway so generalizations don't really work when it comes to foodborne illnesses.
Mr Marler sounds like a no-fun posse; I'll take my burgers medium rare, please.
what a bunch of bologna! does this person even shop or cook? I doubt it bc he knows nothing about food safety or nutrition.
And you know right? And you are an expert because?????
He may live another 60 years due to his diet, but he might not enjoy them due to his diet, too.
Because his diet is so restrictive? LOL. He's got like 5 things on the list. I mean, I know personally I would just DIE if I couldn't have my sprouts!!!! The only thing that's bizarre about his comments are the processed foods. They may not be good for you, but more than likely they are not very likely to give you food poisoning.
I've had raw milk growing up, eaten cookie dough with raw eggs in it, drank egg nog (and yes even the none alcoholic type has eggs in it), had locally grown beef and fresh eggs. Guess what, pretty sure I am just fine. I do cook chicken and pork to the correct temp, I do wash my hands between prepearing certain foods (years of working in a kitchen gets you in that habit)...and I do like hamburgers and such. Personally we all are going to die eventually and there is such a thing as over protecting yourself against bactaria, most people can fight off diseases if they are healthy to begin with.
I too clicked on the link under the impression that the "food expert" was just that and NOT an attorney.
That was definitely false information. An attorney that represents clients that have been affected by foodborne illnesses can NOT be considered by default an expert in providing food safety tips.
Maybe if you'd read the first sentence of the article.
Pendy, the first sentence of this article states he's an attorney and that's exactly what we both say in our comments. We are also both referring to the link on the main page which was titled "Foods a safety expert won't eat." Even the title on this page, "Food safety tips from a pro" is entirely misleading. It's like calling someone a medical expert who isn't actually a doctor but is instead an attorney that represents victims of malpractice.
I completely disagree with the author on ground meat in general. It is a matter of how well you cook the meat.
But at the same time, meat (or any other food) that has been infected for a long time can have toxins and spores that survive the cooking process and cause trouble. So, you still have to be careful: shouldn't defrost a turkey on the counter for two days, take it out of the freezer and into the fridge (I alway buy a spare aluminum cooking pan to prevent any leaks contaminating the fridge).
As someone who IS actually a nationally-certified food safety manager and chef (unlike the guy in this article.. sigh.. is it really so easy to represent yourself as an expert anymore?), I get his "ground meat" phobia, and I share it. For me, it's the whole "pink slime" thing – the product is made from cast-off meat trimmings including glands, connective tissue, and rotting meat (the latter is the main reason the product is washed in ammonia – to kill the smell). Connective tissue has no nutritional value, and renders your final product less nutritious than REAL ground beef. Plus the "rot" factor. I consider it much more potentially unsafe than conventional ground beef. If I use ground beef, I grind it myself.
Hi Lagne, what kind of beef do you grind for your ground beef and will the butcher at my local grocery (kroger) do this for me? I'm very interested. But, I need some more info! Thanks,
Do you food safety guys have to do continuing education?. You need serious help on the "ammonia" thing. Food is never washed in ammonia, despite the shoddy reporting this past summer. Ammonia hydroxide gas can kill bacteria present onf fruits and vegetables which is why the producer of lean finely texturred beef thought it would be a good idea to pass his ground beef product through an ammonia hydroxide atmosphere.
I recommend you read the appropriate posts on feedyardfoodie.
Many cases of "flu" is actually food poisoning. Cross contamination is quite common because anyone preparing food might handle several different type of food without washing their hands. Simple rule ALWAYS wash your hand between handling different types of food. I would guess that almost everyone gets some type of food poisoning several times a year. Mostly it is very mild and sometime it is severe. We live in a world full of microbes that are looking for food which just happens to be humans.
I did food service for 20 years in the military and the services have very rigid sanitation standards. I still observe them in my kitchen. I was in Subway one day and a server dropped the knife on the floor, picked it up walked behind a wall and came back in 15 seconds and when her coworker asked if she washed it she silently mouthed, "No." Subway's sanitation in my opinion is terrible. They use the same knife to cut through every type of meat and the servers touch every type of meat; if one thing is contaminated there's a chance of cross contamination. I emailed Subways customer service and received no reply.
Coupon for a free foot long.
Greg, as someone who worked a Summer job there in high school, I can tell you it really matters who the specific owner of the place is. Where I worked, we were required to follow the regulations you were talking about, we changed out gloves any time we touched anything different, and had several knives for different types of foods.
Having visited other restaurants in the chain however, I share your aversion to the common standard of food safety there.
Granted though, this was now nearly a decade ago, so it is entirely possible standards have changed in the interim.
if the place you eat has illegals handling your food – you are likely to have been exposed to brain parasites. there is an epidemic of brain parasites in CA – and CA is silent about it. illegals are bringing it in – and their children are exposing American children – this is extremely serious and CA is quiet about it for obvious reason. brain parasite are spreading across the USA as illegals spread across the USA.
Wow...that's a pretty smart parasite if it knows only to spread itself via illegal immigrants but not the legal ones...I guess that's because it lives in the brain, eh?
Holly, get to a doctor quick! Your brain is already infected. And watch out for zombies.
Moron!
what a pathetic racist moron....
is that how you contracted them?
Wow......a bigot and stupid to boot. Killer combination there Holly. Please share more of your "wisdom". And while you're at it, please adjust the foil hat you're wearing. I think your reception is fuzzy.
The worst food poisoning of my life was courtesy of Taco Bell.
I eat sprouts, bagged greens, cider from the farm stand, and ground meat all the time. Never got sick from any of it.
Maybe there's something to be said for the "hygiene hypothesis". If you don't keep your immune system wrapped up in cotton wool, you don't have to worry about those terrible horrible un-wiped shopping carts.
Worst case of the sharts ever.
Mmmm, love steak tartare topped with an egg yolk.
i agree!
What exactly is wrong with eating ground meat? It is used to make hamburgers, meatballs, sausage, meatloaf, tacos (burritos, etc), meat sauce, and a variety of other things. Just like anything, if it is cooked properly it is just fine. If we avoided all the foods that have any chance of causing health problems we would all starve to death.
Most ground meat is not the product of a single animal. Grinding machines are not cleaned very often. Instead hundreds or even thousands of different animals are grounded using the same machine. If just one animal contaminates the grinding machine with microbes, then all of the rest of the animals being grounded in the machine will become contaminated too. Almost all of the ground meat in the US is prepared this way.
Microbes are found on the outside surfaces of meat, where they are likely to be incinerated in the cooking process; grinding the meat puts those microbes inside the food, where the heat of cooking isn't as extreme, allowing them to survive to be ingested as active microbes.
Thank you for writing one of only a couple of actually intelligent comments on the article... thank you for saying something informed and useful instead of the droves of comments that only show ignorance of the subject matter. If they or someone they know hasn't gotten critically ill or died from eating bagged lettuce, ground beef, sprouts or cantaloupe then it will likely happen in time and then they won't feel so smug about the subject. I cross the street and haven't been hit by a bus before but I'd like to have someone clue me in if one is coming toward me. I have however lost a parent to a national foodborne illness outbreak and therefore have a little different insight about where the risks from our national food supply are concentrated and how inadequately the public are informed. They can make their jokes and think it's funny until it's their loved one in the ground. You shouldn't have to lose a loved one to benefit from this information but since those without a reason to care, yet, refuse to listen when warned... the outbreaks will just keep killing our very young, very old and the immune compromised by cancer or chemotherapy of any age. And, while I'm on the subject, if you google the food safety expert in this article you will find a little more about him and why he is now considered an expert in food safety. If your toddler died from eating a bite of fast food from a drive through you'd be looking for this man and his expert knowledge and wondering why your "common sense" didn't save your child's life.
I don't know if this counts but one time I ate 2 microwaved 7-11 burritos before a 8 hour plane ride and I regretted it. (so did everybody sitting near me)
There is no such thing as 100% safe. Never did and never will. People have been dying of food poisoning since before we climbed down from trees. It is part of nature, raw food, healthy food or not.
Use common sense and avoid what you can avoid. The alternative is worse.
MSP has offered a welcome dose of sanity in all of this.
It is a sad day when we can't trust any of the food we find at the store. The fact that you can't drink raw milk or fruit juice in this country is appalling. We're supposed to be the world leaders and we get some of the worst food. But hey, we get it cheap!
You can drink raw milk, you're just rolling the dice with nasty things like listerosis, typhoid, tuberculosis, diptheria, etc. This has always been the problem with raw milk, which is why pasteurization was such a big deal when it came around in the mid 19th century. Yes, there were (and are) many people who drink raw milk in this country and others who are perfectly healthy, but there are also many who drink raw milk and get sick or die because of it. Raw milk is especially dangerous for people with weakened immune systems like older adults and sick children. Many people join cooperatives where they own part of the cow and get raw milk that way, but even if you know the exact conditions under which the milk is being produced I would still be wary. As I said, many people do drink raw milk with no trouble, but I can eat fatty foods and ho-hos all day without gaining any weight or having trouble with my cholesterol or blood pressure. That doesn't mean I would recommend that diet to everyone – quite the opposite, in fact! If it works for you, great, but I'll take the peace of mind pasteurization brings.
The chemist Louis Pasture invented the pasteurization process to prevent microbes in food from making people sick. Drinking raw milk is a gamble because it can be so easily contaminated during the milking of the cow. Think about milking a cow and standing in manure while doing it. Cows defecate all the time and walk around in it. Trying to keep cows microbe free before milking is impossible.
Actually, he invented it to make the wine making process more efficient and predicatble. The health benefits in other foods and beverages were just a happy side effect.
Hey! Go eat s*it n die. Always been that way, always will be.
And throw down a "5 Hour Energy" while yer at it. At least maybe you'll look sharp n alert in the box.
Most people die from eating too damn much, not from eating poison food.
Yes, I actually talk to myself a lot.
obviously
I'm careful about my food safety but things like raw eggs don't scare me. I remember a home eco teacher wigging out once because myself and another kid were licking the beaters after mixing up some brownies. You would have thought we'd sick up and die right there from her hysterics. My family also had whole unprocessed milk in the home for a number of years when I was a kid, I didn't like it myself as I'm lactose intolerant, but I don't think anyone ever go sick. That kind of thing is likely to be more dangerous if you were buying it that way from a large operation, but when you squeezed it out of a cow yourself the hour before it's likely to be okay. Ground meats are much the same, by virtue of being processed in factory conditions they are more likely to contain contaminants, but just cook it to the right temp and it's just fine.
PS Any chef that would burn a steak to the point that it's considered Medium should be relieved of their duty!
Luck plays a big role in whether you will get sick from eating raw foods. Maybe you will change your mind if you get a severe case of food poisoning from eating raw foods. Salads are raw foods that are recommended by nutritionist but there is some risk in eating them. Life and death are intertwined.
I forgot to mention that I have been eating from dented cans all my life also !!!! Not sick once and look at the money I saved. Also eat leafy greens daily without one problem over the last 50 years ???? It's healthy and tasty and goes along with my rare meat I consume often. I also love liver, heart, beef and moose tounge, headcheese and pickeled pigs feet jelly. Try it all and you will love it also !!!
Parker, you are eating how we should be eating. And there is a difference between raw milk and veggies coming from CAFO cows and sprayed with their manure. If you have healthy cows and use their manure for fertilizer, you don't have these outbreaks. These illnesses are caused by the misuse and abuse of our environment. Source well, and you are fine.
Oh and good for you for eating all of the "nasty bits." That's how the Inuit survived on an almost 100% meat diet. Eat those parts and you get full nutrients. I am so thrilled to see someone doing it "old school" and the right way. I am learning to do things this way for the sake of my kids and even got the ole liver out....I don't love it, but it's healthy. Next.....tongue or something else if I can source it.
Actually the author specified leafy greens in bags (where you can't tell if some of them have gone bad) and not leafy greens in general. It sounds like from your letter you get your greens in bunches from the produce section.
Use common sense. Wash your hands. Wash all produce. It may be pesticide free but what about bird pooh? Use your nose; bad things smell bad (or different). Use your eyes: does it look weird? Use your hands; does it feel "off"? Unless you grow your own food and know exactly how it's handled, assume it's dirty. However, I have NEVER been sick from restaurant leftovers or food taken un-refrigerated on trips.
This article contains nothing but sweeping, unsupported generalizations. Mostly it just makes Mr. Marler sound like a paranoid headcase who won't eat potato chips with his bare hands without first taking a Biosafety Level IV decon shower. "Cook your meat even hotter?" You're right, Mr. Marler. From now on I'll only eat charcoal that's been microwaved on high for a minimum of ten minutes.
I guess these experts have nothing else to do but scare people. I am 73 and eat anything and everything, without washing it, take food home from cafes all the time, eat eggs like candy daily, pick berries from the woods and eat most before I get home, eat rare meat always, and break every other rule for eating healthy, and I am healthy as a work horse. My doctor says not to change anything as I test great in all areas, so guess I will continue to be "unhealthy" in my eating habits since I have never been sick from what I eat. Enjoy what you eat and just use your head that God gave you about cleanliness. I believe it's called "common sense" ?????
Listen to Parker, People, and read about what else he eats. Stop eating the crap in a box. It's not food....it's a food-like product.
And for every instance of someone like you, there's somebody that died from food poisoning out there.
I understand the need to be cautious, but don't eat bagged leafy greens? People need much more of that, not someone advocating we eat less of it.
The author didn't say "Don't eat spinach!" the author is saying don't eat spinach (etc) from bags.
I believe the author is talking about 'salad in a bag'. Where the lettuce is precut. You cannot see all of the pieces and if they are going bad or not.
People also don't wash the bagged lettuce like they would a free head, so any contamination doesn't get taken care of like it would with unbagged produce.
Disappointed in the article. Not good at all. Everyone should take precautions with their food, but sometimes it really is the luck (or misfortune) of the draw and timing.
Wow, this guy should just live on his own farm and grow his own food. Here's my own list of food to avoid:
1) Fast food of any kind
2) Really cheap food – the stuff sold in discount stores; dented cans, expired products, and boxes with holes or that have been partially crushed
3) Food whose ingredients have things you can't pronounce or more than two non-foods in the listing
4) Any meat that I don't know the origin of (I always buy meat directly from a local farm – yes, it's more expensive, but it's a lot better quality and taste, the animals are treated more humanely and eat a diet they can tolerate, and I eat less meat overall that way...)
And I'm about as much of an "expert" as the guy in the article...
So you don't eat foods that have cobalamins, phylloquinone, or pyridoxine in them?
Being mindful of bacteria is a good idea, but this author is advocating paranoia rather than common sense. Properly preparing and cooking your food, and properly storing leftovers, eliminates the majority of food poisoning risk.
Agree. No ground meat of any kind? No sausage of ANY kind then. No processed food, which I wonder does that include veggie burgers and meat substitutes? Very weak article.
Maybe he buys roasts and grinds his own meat
The entire western diet isn't real food. It's all processed food made with chemicals, preservatives, colorings that is killing Americans with cancer and heart disease. The average American consumes 1 gallon of preservatives per year, so when you die you won't need to be embalmed! Go back to eating Mother Nature's diet...foods in their original form. You'll be healthier and live longer. I've been doing this for 44 years and haven't stepped one foot into a doctor's office.
I was attacked by a cold left over Big Mac at midnight! It came out and blinded me with 2 all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. .wait. Sorry...my bad. I just woke up and started reading this article after watching Attack of the killer tomatoes. Thought the article was about foods that killed.....sorry CNN!
Mussels... I was chowing down on a huge bowl of them while at a restaurant in Long Island. The minute I bit into a bad one I knew it was all over. Within hours I thought I was going to die and for three days after. Never had them again...
Fear mongering at its best! This is what CNN, other news media outlets and politicians are so great at. They take a grain of truth and blow it up so it urns into 10% truth and 90% exaggeration to fit their need. Food safety comes down to COMMON SENSE
Common sense is not common anymore.. remember phones think for us now.
The general public needs much more than common sense; some research on these major conventional food producing companies, the many chemicals in these foods and what it does to the human body, the health benefits of independent organic food producers, some self-discipline and consistency with the diet. Common sense is an understatement, we really need to stop purchasing our food and many other products without researching their true authenticity, health effects, quality and long-term effects. I bet many people don't even read the ingredients on the food labels or the nutrition and portion size.....people just pick out items they like, look at the price, if they can afford it toss it into the cart and keep it moving. There's so much more imperative than common sense here, because the government fails to be transparent in mass food production...they alter things to taste so good that people don't really want to care about what's in it or what it will really do to the body. I'd say, don't be a sheep, start doing some serious research and start supporting companies (independent organic food companies) that actually respect Americans and are not giving them illnesses just to continue driving Mercedes Benz's, living in mansions and all that...
More "Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt", otherwise known as FUD.
I went to a food fair and ate a meatloaf that was sitting out too long in the warm sun. It was already late afternoon.
Wow. That was so painful, I thought I was going to die. Watch out for food left out too long in the sun.
Again....kind of a common sense thing. But you learned your lesson I assume.
people who live their lives based on CNN or Fox or whatever these so called 'experts' and their reports say... are losing out on life.
i have been sick as a daying foaming snake bitten dog from food poisoning, twice in 28 years. both of the times, i followed the code correctly, someone in a restaurant didn't. Am I gonna stop eating out? Hell no! Am i gonna care where i eat? meh maybe, taco trucks still rule and many times i dont even wash my hands. but guess what, my body, god given, and nature designed, has DEFENSE system. so these experts can go fudge themselves with their non existant concerns in my world.
Have you seen what trichinosis does with your defense system?
Read a travel advisory some years back that strongly warned against any type of buffettes, as the food has an opportunity to sit around for looong periods of time and usually isn't kept hot enough, particularly if they are using those tiny little Sterno stoves.
Also, never take seafood or chicken for "doggy bag" from a restaurant – unless you actually plan to give it to your dog. It'll go bad before you get it home and put it in the frig.
bullcrap! i have taken fried fish and chicken to go that has say out in my car for at least an hour before i get home.
Fish goes bad in under 30 minutes, chicken not much longer. So, you are just lucky if you haven't gotten sick yet. I've had food poisoning. It's really not something you want to mess around with.
Lobster , just about killed me!
Calling this shyster a "food safety expert" is a mammoth insult to those of us who really are food safety experts, like myself with a quarter century's worth of experience in the field. How about contacting me for your next legal article, CNN? I'm just as much an expert on the law as this person is on food safety.
I agree, the article was lightweight.
I study food and nutrition as a hobby and could have written a better article than this one. The first tip he gives in that numbered list makes me question his motives
"1. Always mistrust claims that some type of food is safer or better for you than other food. Someone is usually hiding something from you."
We have become so afraid of germs that we are putting our immune systems to sleep. Then when we do stumble across something – it becomes life threatening because out immune systems haven't be challenged and execised and know how to combat something.
Thank you!
P.S. I wish these blogs had a "Like" button like the news articles. Then I could just click that instead of posting my own comment.
If avoiding illness is really that important to you, don't have kids. Seriously.
Does Bill Marler ever leave his house? My God what a paranoid person. I am 65 and my wife and I cannot figure out where all the fear cames from. Wiping food carts, food hander gloves for everything and don't get us started on those 'hand sanitizer' dispenser that are everywhere. We are trying to be so safe we will end up with no natural immunities to anything. I find it amusing that people will take a paper towel to open a public restroom to leave then grab the handle of another door with their bear hands. What, did the person you are trying to protect yourself against not touch anything after he or she left the restroom? How moronic this all is. Bill Marler and the rest of you need to stop scaring people.
I understand that no one wants to touch some stranger's bodily waste, but this sounds as though it is things are starting to get a nit excessive. I am not a doctor, and I do not know the statistics, but I would wager that each one of us touches some thigs every day that we would find objectionable, and never know it. The reason we never know it is that contact with someone's waste, raw or undercooked food or similar items are generally not an issue. Raw meat does not necesarrily carry E. Coli, nor do other foods. In California, there is an extremely low incidence (if any) of contracting E. Coli from eggs. So if my egg has a delicious runny yolk on its muffin at brunch, I have no problem.
My point, of course, is that someone spitting in your food is disgusting (and I did not know that that was common and will strategize accordingly), and touching a shopping cart that someone's child may have sat on with a leaky diaper or a fork that someone known to have not washed his hands after going to the bathroom are not pleasant images, but the probability of contamination is extremely slight. There are far more serious issues facing all of us; this simply is not a real problem.
Calling Marler a "pro" is like calling any ambulance chasing lawyer a "medical professional".
Hahahaha... well said.
Raw mik rules is al I can say. MOst commenters on national news outlets are paid shills of the national big ag eople so their livelihod depends on repeating the biases of theFDA, USDA, and big ag. So, telling people raw milk is bad or dangerous, is clearly at the top of their list as the movement towards raw milk (yes, only form clean farms and mostly from only grass/hay fed cows). I , and my extened family , have now been drinking raw milk for 10 years straight and my two young kids(now 5 and 8) were weaned from Mother's milk at 6 months with raw milk and really, have never been sick or to a doctor except for a few vaccinations and check ups. Compare that record with most kids and I think whatever my kids were doing, worked like a charm. In short, people need to educate themselves by reading a wide variety of opinions, looking at what other parts of the world do, and not listen solely to the US big ag machines and their minions.
All those precautions may work but it will also be a super waste of time. This article is fear mongering. Don't buy into this garbage, just be reasonable when making shopping decisions and you will be golden.
Advices 3 through 5 are just common sense. Advices 1, 2, and 6 are to be ignored because it is asking you to be paranoid in public which will do you more harm than good, mentally and socially.
Sheesh selling fear much? How about, never trust a lawyer trying to make a buck?
I had severe food poisoning twice. Once was from catered food on a film set. It was a sea food gumbo that tasted fine but nearly killed me three hours later. The second time was a chicken fried steak at a Chili's. It was 20 years before I sat foot in one again and it wasn't my idea. The pepper had covered up the fact the meat had gone off. These days I mostly avoid food I didn't cook myself. The FDA and USDA are a joke. There's simply no excuse for greens to have Ecoli!!!!
A sad article about our litigious society; something bad happens, seek financial retribution from someone.
I grow most of my own (vegetable) food and most of my protein is from wild game.
Take control of your food rather than expecting it to be "safe" (and suing when it isn't).
My family is never sick and has never had food poisoning. I take no procautions at the grocery store except bagging my meat in plastic bags and inspecting my produce. At home I do follow the kitchen food prep safety rules I was taught as a kid in 4-H, and I never thaw meat outside the refrigerator. I do wash hands regularly and when appropriate. Other than that I don't worry about it and it never seems to be a problem. A few germs are good for you, but you should always follow food safety rules. We seldom eat out too.
Yet another scare story. What's next? Germs in hotel rooms? Germs on shopping carts? Office equipments? Germs everywhere?
Avoiding something completely will only make the illness worse the first time it's encountered. In some countries people eat food that would send an American to the hospital immediately with severe symptoms, yet the locals are not affected in the least. There's something to be said about building up some tolerance. It's the same thing with the proliferation of "anti-bacterial" products. They're now saying that it's impeding the body's ability to fight germs.
Well said. I'm very careful to avoid buying antibacterial products. Once I started really looking, I was shocked to see how many things it's in. I mean, not just handsoap but shampoo and body wash and detergent and on and on.
Toronto, run by leftist enviromorons just banned plastic bags in stores. So now people will have to use paper (how is hacking down more trees environmentally conscious?) or re-usable bags which are definitely dangerous because of their ability to hold residual contaminated food particles. The first death caused by this, let it be on the environmentalist's heads.
I had to take a Food Safe course for work (I work for a small grocery chain) and I learned something very interesting. There is no such thing as "Stomach Flu". You know, the nasty 24 hours of praying to the porcelain god promising you'll be good if only you survive. That my friends was actually food poisoning, and it is interesting to me how many times my Mother tried to kill me when I was younger.
funny!
Shopping carts are filthy, but then again, so are a vast majority of people! The lack of hand-washing after using the toilet; the sneezing off to the side, instead of covering one's mouth etc etc ad nauseam. Because of this, I am "PARANOID" about food and wash everything – fruits and vegetables in hot soapy water, then rinse in cold water before i eat them. I don't eat any kind of meat. A retired chemist once told me NEVER to put food in foil, or cook in foil because it "bleeds" into the food. I took his advice to heart..... I believe my nutty clean habits have prevented me from ever having food poisoning from things purchased at the grocery store.
55 yrs old, never had a food or water induced illness. One has to build up a tolerance starting young. But then I have watched my Dad eat 3 week old food, no one should eat, and never look back. It really depends on what your body is used to.
I have had serious bouts of "food borne illness" numerous times, but every single time has been from restaurant or take-away food. As someone posted above, I have never gotten sick from something prepared at home. I eat bagged greens, too. I do wipe down the handles of the shopping carts when wipes are provided, but I don't stress about it. The one thing I do try to remember is to use hand sanitizer when I get back into the car. And always, the first thing I do when I come home from errands is wash my hands. I wipe down my reusable market bags with sanitizer wipes when I think about it.
MAN UP. Learn how your body works. The more dirt you ingest, the better your odds at survival. The less dirt you ingest, the quicker you'll leave the gene pool. Your choice.
I'm one of the "yes, extremely" folks in the response.. but it was at a restaurant. Same with every single person I've known who has ever had food poisoning. I'm in my 40s and have never had any problems with food I've prepared at home be it from my garden, from the farmers market or stalls, or from the supermarket. Be sensible about food prep and the risk is minimal.. the suggestions in this article are such basic common sense it is laughable. Seriously.. who is ever "afraid... too wash your hands"? Idiocy.
Monglian BBQ s***s man.
Man, he almost got me. I thought he was some scientist, then I clicked on his link. He's a freaking lawyer...
how clever you are...NOW we see Who DOES'NT read a simple 2 paragraph story.
you should be embarrassed...headline-only reader.
The 6th word in the article is "attorney."
5th, but who's counting?
It's the sixth word. "20" counts as a word even though it is a number.
I may have misunderstood but I presume that the commenter read, or at least began to read the article, but meant that they clicked on the link for it (on the CNN main page) believing it was written by a physician or scientist who is a "food safety pro." This is what I thought when I clicked on it. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
More hype and mindless scare tactics. Just like any industry there are risks that you cannot completely eliminate. The fact of the matter is that modern man in the western world eats better, safer, and more food that is less likely to kill you than at any time in human history.
My worst was an an IHOP in some backwoods MI town.
Pretty sure it was the cream for the coffee, or the eggs.
I had bad shrimp from a Chinese restaurant once.....miserable miserable miserable for days.
Also I had a friend that worked for a health department in a major US city....her advice was the best....."When in doubt, throw it out!"
I got sick from takeout from local chinese restaurant. My daughter got sick from organic carrots bought from a mega store that has more than groceries.It said that it had been washed, but I should have washed it before she ate it.I do now, always. I try to buy from local farmers.
MEH
When Romney is ELECTED...
We will FINALLY be able to GET RID of those Bloated agencies... That do NO GOOD... like
EPA
OSHA
Unions
Consumer Protection
Ahhhh What a GREAT World THAT would be!!
ya, great. we can go back to the handless 1910's.
may you be the first to eat the tainted spinach
LoL
I guess no one is familiar with facetiousness....
facetiousness is it? Ok. then you'll excuse me while I go back paying hopscotch with landmines
You've got to be kidding!
yes, yes I was....sarcastic
I have traveled third world countries when they were third world countries 3 decades ago and have continued to do so. We have it easy here.
On Sunday I am going tune fishing 30 miles off the NE coast. We will be handling bait, gutting fish, etc. At the same time eating sandwiches, chips and maybe having a beer. No time wash down my greens in a heavy dose of salt water and pat them dry. If we do catch a tuna or mahi it will become sashimi on the spot.
I think that some of the posters here need to get a life...........
Very well said and 100% true. Good lord, we live in a world of worry worts.
I think you miss the point of the article. The problems are caused by heavy processing and agriculture that introduce poisons to our food supply. If you catch a fish in a stream and eat it – as long as it's fairly clean – you're probably eating as healthy as possible. A few worms and dirt won't hurt you if you swallow them with your bass sushi.
you're right.
fishermen, especially those in the deep Ocean, SHOULD realize how much Mercury is in the water...
A little illness is nothing to a Healthy person...
OP needs to do him/herself a favor, read up on mad hatters....
THAT may be WHY he missed the point hehe
Raw milk is definitely a risk unless it comes from a cow that you, or somebody you know well, is taking care of. Then it's delicious. So is cheese made from raw milk. Very common in Europe, and very few people get sick because of it. It's easy to make ground beef safe, and enjoy a rare burger or even steak tartar: buy a good piece of meat, trim and grind it yourself. There is no E.coli or Salmonella inside a chunk of meat. All the bacterial contamination is on the outside. Then it gets mixed into the meat when it is ground, and the bacteria multiply as the ground meat is waiting for you on the shelf in the supermarket.
What about buying whole cuts of meat and grinding them yourself at home?
You will only get sick from them if they have gluten in them, and you are one of the 100,000 people who actually has celiac, or one of the 45,000,000 people who think its trendy to pretend to be allergic.
E. Coli is the rick with ground meat, not celiac disease. It is supposed to b emuch safer to grind your own, provided you CLEAN and sanitize it (the ginder) between uses.
I once got sick from a pot of bad chili. Lasted only a couple days but was cramped up bad. Mom got sick as well. Learned a hard lesson. Never been sick from bad food since.
Lawyers make me sick more often than undercooked food.
Old lawyer jokes tend to nauseate me as well.....
The onset period for foodborne illness (aka food poisoning) varies greatly from a half hour (bacillus cereus) to weeks (hepatitis). According to the CDC, foodborne illness is VASTLY unreported. Yes, wash your food, your hands, your cutting boards, your utensils, your countertops, aprons, potholders – EVERYTHING! Understand most of the nasties require FAT-TOM; food, acidity, time, temperature, oxygen and moisture to reproduce. Under the right conditions, the nasties can double in size every twenty minutes. So the moral of the story is get a thermometer and use it. Cold food should be cold, the old standard was 40 degrees or less, and hot food hot, above 140 degrees. Proper food handling is more than common sense. The author could have and should have provided relevant information. It is a shame wht passes for "journalism" these days.
Ya because I get all my food safety tips from lawyers.
Buy more tin foil hats. Leave more ground meats for me.
extreme food poisoning... anyone ever get it so bad that they lost their vision and hearing for a while, aside from all the usual bodily function nosedives? that marked an ambulence-ride First for me! crazy shiet!
"Food safety tips from a pro"; really a pro? it says in the first line that the pro is an attorney. I'm not taking any tips from an attorney unless they are about how to chase ambulances. Geez CNN what a crappy article, you have succeeded in wasting countless human hours of your readers.
First of all, Marler is an idiot when he says not to drink unpasteurized juices. The juice you buy at a grocery store is pasteurized but that kills pretty much everything including the make up of the juice. Heating is basically a bad idea. Secondly, why not buy a juice maker and say organic vegetables and make your own juice. No need to heat it up because its not going to a shelf for who knows how long. They heat it to extend the shelf life of the product. Finally, the main fault lies with all of you people. You are so drugged up on antibiotics that e.coli a simple bacteria that you yourself possess in your gut has become so dangerous that even adults die. Antibiotics were never meant to be taken daily because that mutates the bacteria and makes them stronger hey they want to live too. Evolution, and adaptability. Suing companies is just wrong. Go and sue those who put antibiotics into your own water and food. And there is nothing wrong with drinking raw milk. I did it as a kid back in Ukraine during Soviet Union. Only had bronchitis when I was a kid a few times. Came to US in 1993, never got sick but I also never ate fast food So he has that right at least. Just cook your own food, buy without pesticides and other crap put in like artificial hormones, work out, and enjoy life and you will be fine.
My 82 year old grandfather was just telling me how on the farm as a kid they would milk the cows, and sometimes the cow would move and step in the milk bucket. They would just strain it through cheesecloth. Apparently took years off his life.
Just washing your hands can do wonders for one's health.
Pro chef speaking — the issue with lettuce (or, really, any produce that grows on/in the ground: melons, carrots, etc. — is that the pickers who harvest these things are often being paid piecework, not an hourly wage. They're paid for each basket or box they pick. Which means that walking 100 yards to the nearest porta-potty costs them money. So when they gotta go, they go right where they are so that they can get right back to picking.
As for the survey, I can't say for sure if I've ever had food poisoning myself, but I suspect several cases when I was a kid. Once I got into foodservice and learned about proper food handling, I looked back at some of the things my mom did (like thawing ground beef by leaving it sit on the kitchen counter all day) and I strongly suspect that all those cases of "stomach flu" I had were actually food poisoning. Since I've been in foodservice (29 years now) and have done most of my own cooking, I haven't been sick beyond what can be explained by too much alcohol consumption ;p
Same here. My dad, a cook in a hospital, would thaw the turkey for 2-3 days before thanksgiving at room temperature. Someone always got sick Thanksgiving night or by the weekend. We always joked that it was the beginning of the flu season. But in hindsight, it was poor kitchen procedure. I'm talking 30 years ago, and haven't had an incident since we've all been educated on proper thawing etiquette.
Ground meat...lol whatever!!
Come on... just use common sense. cook your food, wash your hands and be careful not to use utensils that touch raw meat for anything else. If you follow these three habits, then you'll be very unlikely to get food poisoning. Processed foods? Ugh.. another food nazi. My aunt was a health food person. Vegetarian. Never ate red meat and she still died in her 60's. Just enjoy life and eat good food. It's part of the fun of living.
When people send food back at the restaurant I work at we always spit into their new food. I worked at about 5 different places and that's pretty common.
Well I hope you get caught and go to jail.
How childish. People work hard for their money and want their food how they like it. Let's turn the tables and have them poop on your tip money. pretty appetizing eh!
Let us know how that career in the fast food industry is working out for you.
I do not understand this food poisoning idea. I have NEVER COME CLOSE to feeling ill besides a stomach ache or diarrhea or fever in 21 years. I have only had a stomach ache or diarrhea one at a time following a questionable meal, and never could associate a fever with the food. I am asian and I have eaten a lot of questionable dishes as well.
Pretty sure a 10 year old could have given these tips
No ten year old would have listed ground meat of any kind as a food to avoid. No hamburgers, tacos, meat loaf, stuffed vegetables (peppers, cabbage, eggplant), chilli, hamburger helper. Not everyone loves all of those foods, but most love one or more of those foods.
I've been eating sandwiches for 40+ years. What a crock. I've been eating eggs for the same amount of time...back in the day...2 a day for YEARS.
"It's Okay to send back food.Your life depends on it"
Y'know who eats that food that you send back;Us kitchen workers!!! We always eat the left overs that the bu-boys send back.Once,we got a whole pizza cause the lady said it looked 'burnt'
And once their was a HUGE party,and so much food was left over,damn,we had a FEAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I NEVER send back food. I would rather go to another restaurant or pretend I just didn't like what I ordered and get something else. NEVER tell the cook you don't like how they prepared your food.
Ok let's be honest, if you payed for a 12 dollar pizza and it was burnt...That would be reason to say "No thanks." if the bread is black; its not worth 12 dollars.
Can you please get writers that come up with more than a few sentences/paragraghs about the topic??
This is a (really) lame excuse for journalism!... created so that yahoo will have anoither page to generate ad views ( ie = profits!)
You are right, except that it's our own fault for coming to this site and clicking on this crap. We should know better.
Stop whining, there is quite a bit more information in the photo captions. You didn't make it that far because you were in too much a a hurry to flame someone.
Be afraid of "food". Please, by all means, do NOT eat a sandwich. Brittle bones are better than trichonosis.
It's trichinosis, and unless you don't cook your bear meat thoroughly, or eat raw pork, you are not likely to contract it.
hah, i read the author as Bill Maher for a split second
"1. Always mistrust claims that some type of food is safer or better for you than other food. Someone is usually hiding something from you."
But do this with what the government tells you or what Al Gore tells you makes you the same as a holocaust denier. Good job at being trained by the government and media, slaves.
Well, it certainly is handy when holocaust deniers just up and broadcast it on random comment forums. Got yourself on a domestic terrorism watch list, did you?
Yeah, I agree, and......
wait, what?
I have to know, why the bagged leafy greens and ground meat? Granted, don't want any pink slime, but what about good quality meat or meat that ground at home?
I'm sure grinding your own meat at home will be just as illegal as it is to give a neighbor a tomato from your garden or catching rain water for later use is. (BTW, those are really illegal activities in some localities)
You clearly have no problem with tinfoil tho.
Believe it or not I wash my foil pans with soap before I use them. Tin foil...well it's sealed in a box so no worries there. I just wipe the box down before I start using it.
I wash all leafy greens in a heavy dose of salt water and then rinse and pat dry before I eat them. Even if they are purchased in a sealed bagged or or loose. These things travel on a conveyer during processing. Dust is everywhere and we don't know what's in the dust. Also, never put certain foods in the shopping cart where the kids sit. Kids have poop and pee in their pants. Would you throw a dirty diaper in with your raw foods in the cart? Once home, I wash all cans and wipe all bags and boxes before storing in cabinets or fridge. Rats and roaches crawl all over them...never mind all the dirty hands that picks them up and examines them. The people who packs the foods on the shelves don't always wash their hands either. Wash, wash, wash, and wipe all articles coming from the store.
And you will be the first to get sick. I by fresh and eat fresh with only a fresh water rinse. My body has learned to protect itself from things that others get sick from because they live in a bubble.
You are completely right in what you're saying, MM! It Does Happen in food stores but also in restaurants! I was out with a friend one day and she had to go to the bathroom while we were at a cafeteria and she said she saw one of the girls on the food serving line go in to the next stall and it was clear she had done Number 2, and she said she noticed that when she was done she just got up, Without Washing Her Hands, and went right back to the serving line to continue handling food Without Even Wearing Gloves!! Can you only imagine that? She was actually Touching some of the food that way! I wonder how many people got sick that day and other days due to such Carelessness and Reprehensible Behavior on the part of some restaurant workers!
This reminds me unfortunately of a co-worker at an office that had an inside lunch room where people would line up, grab a fork, a spoon, a knife, etc. and sit down to eat after ordering their food. This man would often go to the restroom to relieve his bowels and then just walk out without giving any thought to washing his hands afterwards! He would then walk into the lunch room, go through several forks, spoons, and knives with his bare hands until he chose the one he wanted and he would then sit down to eat. All Without Washing His Hands!! And just think of all the other people behind him who did not know he hadn't washed his hands who then touched and selected eating utensils he had just touched with his dirty hands! He then touched other items in the workplace that all others had to also touch. This was obviously a health hazard and it was reported to management but apparently nothing was ever done about it for fear of embarrassing the employee. These things being discussed are extreme Health Hazards and people aren't even paying attention to the safety of their health! That is why after seeing that happen, I started either bringing my own lunch or eating out at a place I knew was Safe and Clean! There's never any excuse for Dirty People who won't wash their hands after they poop and who don't care about sharing their filth with others!!
This reminds me unfortunately of a co-worker at an office that had an inside lunch room where people would line up, grab a fork, a spoon, a knife, etc. and sit down to eat after ordering their food. This man would often go to the restroom to relieve his bowels and then just walk out without giving any thought to washing his hands afterwards! He would then walk into the lunch room, go through several forks, spoons, and knives with his bare hands until he chose the one he wanted and he would then sit down to eat. All Without Washing His Hands!! And just think of all the other people behind him who did not know he hadn't washed his hands who then touched and selected the eating utensils he had just touched with his dirty hands! He then touched other items in the workplace that all others had to also touch. This was obviously a health hazard and it was reported to management but apparently nothing was ever done about it for fear of embarrassing the employee. These things being discussed are extreme Health Hazards and people aren't even paying attention to the safety of their health! That is why after seeing that happen, I started either bringing my own lunch or eating out at a place I knew was Safe and Clean! There's never any excuse for Dirty People who won't wash their hands after they poop and who don't care about sharing their filth with others!!
Ground meats are WAY more likely to be contaminated with bacteria like E. coli or Salmonella... if you have an 8oz. steak, you have a single cut of meat from a single animal, and a finite amount of surface area exposed to the outside (dirty) world. Now imagine 8oz of hamburger... unknown number of animals ground up together and infinitely more surface area as the bits are all mixed together. Put one piece of fecally contaminated meat in the grinder and you've got a contaminated processing line and tons of potentially contaminated meat, hence the HUGE recalls of ground meat we sometimes encounter. I assume a similar scenario accounts for the risks associated with the bagged leafy greens.
I'm a veterinarian and while I am not in employed in food safety, that is one job we are trained to do. This is one of the biggest take-home messages I learned in my public health training. Hope this helps.
You obviously have never watched video of how butchers glue meet together in order to create prime cuts of meet. The way they do it you would never know.
I saw that video. If you are fooled by the end product then you shouldn't be buying your own "meet". The end product looked like no know cut of actual beef.
You would never eart meat if you knew how little of it is actually properly inspected and you can thank the Republican Party currenty in office for defunding the FDA (food safety and medication) and trying to kill other government agencies that protect us from disease, keep vaccine cures in storage, make sure our water and soil are cancer and toxin free, inspect food coming from other nations, and provide disaster relief from agencies like FEMA. Romney doesn't believe in FEMA or any regulations on oil companies or on banks. Rommey is no leader and is dangerous to the safety of our nation on many levels and especially for our national security. Romney should just end his campaign and donate all the absurd campaign dollars to schools or maybe our debt his Party created.
I probably would have laughed at wiping down the grocery cart two days ago, but I think about the cleanliness of the carts now. I went in to my usual grocery store the other day, and a man who worked for the store was out side emptying the trash can at the front of the building. It seemed like a good thing to do. Then, as I was walking thru the store, I saw the same man pushing a grocery cart thru the store with the bags of trash in a cart. I could not believe my eyes. Just in case someone else thought the this lawyer is being ridiculous.
The carts outside the Trader Joe's near me sit out at night right wher the local bums relieve themselves (there is an indentation in the side of the building that makes a perfect urinal). I suspect their aim is not always true.
eat OCRACY, the name just freaked me out, i just read Cloud Atlas.