Food for Thought Friday

Cantaloupes, eggs, salad greens, sprouts....

There was a time when that read like a list of things you could only dream of getting your kids to eat. Now, that dream has become a nightmare for dozens of people across the country.

Each of those items, along with many others, have been recalled in recent months for contamination by listeria, salmonella or E Coli. It used to be that we were frightened of getting sick from food coming in from other countries (ie: China) or at your filthy corner bodega with the horrendous food safety rating. Now the threat hits much closer to home --  right in our own backyard (literally, in some cases). To date, more than 25 people have died from contaminated cantaloupe in the past month -- the worst case of food borne illness in the U.S. since 1985. Culprits of the sickening fruit were likely unclean equipment in the Colorado farm that processed it, and pools of water on the floor that served as breeding grounds for the deadly bacteria.

I'm a huge Farmer's Market foodie, and always assumed I was getting safer produce at such places, but sadly, that is not always the case. Just recently, the CDC came out with a report detailing outbreaks of salmonella at so-called "backyard farms." The eggs were traced to chicks purchased from a mail-order hatchery (sounds odd, but is actually rather common for urban chicken farmers). I've toyed with the idea of getting a chicken coop in my own backyard, though I think my neighborhood association (and my husband) would freak out.

Apparently, chickens can look and act completely healthy, yet still be carrying a variety of deadly viruses which they then pass on to humans through touch, or consuming their eggs or meat. Kids are especially vulnerable to such bacteria and often the effects can be deadly (this is the same reason why it's really important to wash your kids' hands after they touch farm animals or visit a petting zoo of any kind).

For now, I'll leave egg production to the professionals. I just hope they know what they are doing. Have these recent recalls changed the way your family eats? I'll admit, I've been hesitant about buying cantaloupe lately, even though the affected fruit did not apparently end up in Georgia. Unfortunately, we don't know about many dangerous foods until someone gets sick. Even when a recall is issued after the fact, it's too little to late for too many.