From Kitchen To Table

By Anastasia Toufexis

The public may consider pesticides the No. 1 safety issue, but to Government officials and food experts the main problem is the way food is handled at the end of the supply chain, in restaurants and at home. Each year more than 7 million cases of illness develop as a result of contaminated food. Most of these ailments are minor, but others, such as meningitis and toxoplasmosis, are serious enough to cause 9,000 deaths. The economic costs in medical bills and lost wages and productivity add up to $10 billion. That is an enormous waste since most of the illnesses could be avoided with proper food-handling techniques.

Modern-day eating habits make it hard to be careful. Many Americans rely on restaurant or supermarket salad bars -- places where the food is left to sit for many hours and handled by many people, often in slovenly fashion. Notes dietitian Bettye Nowlin of the American Dietetic Association: "I've seen people at take-out stores who don't seem to have a problem sneezing on food and then offering it to you."

Researchers at the University of California at Davis have watched customers in more than 40 salad bars and found that the typical awkward design of the stations encourages patrons to use their hands to pick up food. Says Robert Sommer, director of the University's Center for Consumer Research: "Short- waisted customers had to reach to get food. Children had a hard time getting things. And serving utensils did not suit the item they were placed with."

When people decide to cook for themselves at home, they often do not know exactly what to do. Instead of thawing food in the refrigerator, they leave it out on the kitchen counter where the exterior will warm up faster than the interior, thus promoting bacterial growth. Novice cooks also make the mistake of slicing raw meat and chopping vegetables on the same cutting board, encouraging the transfer of contaminants from one food to another. Dr. Robert Tauxe, of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, points out another no- no: "Sometimes people will take chicken out to the barbecue in a big bowl. Then they will put the cooked chicken back in the same bowl." Thus bacteria from uncooked chicken wind up in the finished product.

Food experts warn against a faddish trend to undercooking items, particularly hamburgers, fish and chicken. Poultry should not be pink near the bone. Many cooks are impatient, particularly when it comes to the microwave. Warns Douglas Archer, head of the microbiology division of the FDA's Office of Nutrition and Food Sciences: "If you're told to cook something and let it sit for two minutes, there's a good reason. You're letting the heat from inside the food come out in the form of steam and finish the cooking." Once food is prepared, it should be eaten within an hour or refrigerated. Among the most dangerous foods to leave out are those containing eggs, such as mayonnaise and custard. Cooked poultry filled with stuffing is also likely to grow bacteria quickly.

To help anxious cooks, the USDA and other Government agencies have toll-free hot lines for consumer questions. Some requests are a bit exotic. "Did we really have to throw out the whole roast just because my daughter-in-law mistook a daffodil bulb for an onion and sliced it over the meat?" asked a worried caller. Yes, replied the hot line, the bulbs are toxic to humans. Other questions indicate a lot of basic ground needs covering. Two samples: "Can spaghetti sauce left open on the counter for three days hurt me?" and "Is it O.K. to eat groceries that my husband left in the car for a week?"

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CREDIT: TIME Charts by Joe Lertola

CAPTION: MUST BE SOMETHING I ATE

With reporting by Cristina Garcia/Los Angeles, Janice M. Horowitz/New York and Michael Riley/Washington