> I hope someone comes up with a good way to eliminate the
> salmonella risk in sprouts (a phage, maybe??). I'm not too
> enthusiastic about the idea of cooking them! (though I'm sure
> they'd be a great ammendment to some cooked foods; I just prefer
> them as a fresh green).
Is heating the only way to knock back Salmonella spp.?
I seem to recall years of food safety bulletins recommending good
hygiene (washing hands, work surfaces, etc.) with hot water and soap
as a way to control the bacteria, which can live on anything wet,
including pet turtles. (Though one wouldn't want to wash a turtle
with hot water and soap....)
I personally wouldn't want to expose my own green foods to a
surfactant (soap). But what about rinsing sprouts in a solution of
lemon juice and water or vinegar and water before eating them? Or
serving them with low pH condiments? What pH would it take to
knock back bacteria of this genus, in general?
My grandfather, Cap'n Joe Sinex, as sweet and surly an old SOB as
you'd ever want to meet and a kickaroo cook, to boot, said that one
should *always* put vinegar or lemon juice on salads or raw foods
of any kind if one didn't want to risk "food poisoning."
My ex-father-in-law and mother-in-law, both of whom grew up on the
Lower East Side in NYC, insisted that pickling was invented in part
as preservation but also in part from the idea that eating something
pickled with each meal--something acidic--was prophylactic against
consuming bacteria in foods. Hence kosher dill pickles, pickled eggs,
pickled beets, pickled horseradish, etc. Sanitation standards in the
food markets in the 30s and 40s weren't near what they are today.
'Course they didn't have the superbugs we do, either.
Just a thought.
peace
misha
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems
UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
Voice: (608) 262-8018 FAX: (608) 265-3020
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
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Salamanders are important. --Mister 3D
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