I am quite vigilant about what I eat and figure that, although rare, listeria infections need to happen to somebody and pretending that it won't be me seems somewhat wishful In my opinion, ingnorance is bliss until you are equipped with specific knowledge i.e. what you can and can't eat. Once you are, it is very difficult to go back and pretend you never heard the information. Flowerchild, very well said - I do share you opinions
On the whole re-heating front, I have a question that has bugged me from day one. No matter how much research I have done, I have never got an answer! According to the professionals, the rule for left-overs is to eat them within 12 - 24 (times seem to differ depending on sources) and to heat them until "piping hot". So this is what I have done for my entire pregnancy so far because I daren't tempt fate!
My question is: If listeria is killed by heating until piping hot, then why can't you keep left-overs for longer than the prescribed timeframe if you are going to heat it until piping hot anyway? Even if something is riddled with the listeria bacteria, would it all be killed if it is totally nuked?
I think to respond to the reheat question - by reheating to "piping hot" you kill a significant proportion of bacteria (say 99.994% - figure pulled out of my backside) If left for more than 12-24 hours, the bacteria have time to grow to much larger numbers, so that killing this proportion is no longer "safe"
Oh, yeah, and the fruit salad thing. I've never forgotten that from my food handling course - how many people wash melons? You figure "Oh, well, you don't eat the rind..." BUT you do use the same knife to cut through it as you do to cut the fruit. And when you buy a cut melon from a grocer, do you have any idea whether they have washed it? At the course, we were told that melon is a really high risk food for the immune-suppressed.
also that hospitals wash lettuce in a weak bleach solution. Mmmmmmm....
In my opinion, ingnorance is bliss until you are equipped with specific knowledge i.e. what you can and can't eat. Once you are, it is very difficult to go back and pretend you never heard the information. Flowerchild, very well said - I do share you opinions
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