DON'T TAKE FOOD POISONING TO YOUR PICNIC

Carrie Good of Jackson enjoyed chicken at the picnic with her co-workers.

The official picnic season is in full swing. These days of summer are filled with reunions at the park, company outings or just simple family picnics. If proper food preparation and storage guidelines are not followed, food poisoning and illness can result.

Janet Lee Kline, nutrition/health education specialist at the University of Missouri University Extension, offers some guidelines for a safe food adventure.

At the store, buy perishable foods last and immediately get them into the refrigerator or an ice chest. For longer storage, freeze food. When you thaw, allow time to thaw in the refrigerator. Bacteria multiply rapidly at room temperature.

Remember the rules of cleanliness at the picnic site. If there is no running water available, use disposable wet wipes to clean your hands before working with food. Wash your hands after working with raw meat or poultry and before handling other food.

Cook everything thoroughly.

"Hamburger patties, pork chops and ribs should be cooked until all the pink is gone; poultry until there is no red in the joints," Kline said. "Fresh fish should be cooked until it flakes with a fork."

Perishable foods, such as potato salad, lunch meat or cream pies, should be stored in a cooler. Keep the cooler in the shade. In the car, put the cooler in the passenger area rather than in the hot trunk.

Leftovers should be handled carefully. Put perishable foods back in the cooler before you go for a hike or swim. If your trip did not last more than four to five hours, and the perishable foods were on ice except when cooked and served, you should be able to save the leftovers.

Some 2 million Americans are struck by food poisoning each year. While food poisoning usually means uncomfortable intestinal flu-like symptoms, it can be serious in the young, the old, and people with other illnesses. The rarely occurring botulism is always serious.

Food poisoning bacteria, microscopic in size, surround us. They are in the air, soil, water, in our own digestive tracts and in those of many animals.

Salmonella is a bacterium one can get when infected foods, such as meat, poultry, eggs or fish, are eaten raw or undercooked. In 12 to 36 hours, it can cause diarrhea, fever and vomiting that could last from two to seven days.

Staphylococcus aureus is a microscopic-sized bacterium that can cause big trouble. Staph lives on the skin and in the nose and throat. In hot weather it grows quickly to produce illness. From two to eight hours after eating, one can have vomiting and diarrhea lasting a day or two.

Cooking will not destroy the staph poison. This is why it is important to wash hands before preparing food and to store food on ice after two hours.

According to Jennifer Stack, senior nutritionist at New York University Medical Center, animal foods often contain bacteria that can multiply within two hours at room temperature. In large enough numbers, bacteria can cause illness. With most foods, very cold or very hot temperatures will reduce the growth of bacteria or kill it.

Even without spoiling, meats, poultry, fish and eggs can contain harmful bacteria that cannot be seen, smelled or tasted but can cause food poising.

If food ever looks or smells like spoilage has begun to set in, do not taste it. Throw it away. The best advice is: When in doubt, throw it out.