Avoid Risk Of Food-Borne Illness; Cook Foods Thoroughly

For the generations of tuna eaters who grew up flaking fully cooked fish out of a can, what’s on the plate in restaurants lately has been a bit of a shock.

These days, thick tuna steaks with barely seared exteriors slice open to reveal a purple interior of completely raw fish. And along with seasoned but uncooked-salmon tartare, rare duck breast, wafer-thin slices of beef carpaccio, or a plate of freshly shucked oysters resting on ice, raw is all the rage.

Americans haven’t seen this much tender flesh since the invention of the bikini.

At the same time, health professionals are more alarmed than ever about the risk of food-borne illness from animal products that haven’t been fully cooked.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention estimate that up to 33 million cases of food-related illness - and up to 7,000 deaths - occur each year. Most are mild attacks of abdominal cramping and diarrhea.

But what’s mild for healthy adults can be lethal for children, the elderly and those with compromised immune systems, such as people with HIV or AIDS, or anyone undergoing treatment for cancer.

The public is rarely aware of food hazards unless they result in publicized events of death or serious illness. Those who have been eating rare hamburgers, clams on the half-shell and eggs over easy for years without getting sick may find it hard to take the warnings seriously.

But health professionals caution that times have changed, not just because food diseases are being tracked more carefully, but because the new pathogens can be more dangerous.

Most notorious are the outbreaks of the E. coli bacteria such as that which caused the death of four children who ate improperly cooked hamburgers in 1992 and 1993.

And Hudson Foods recently recalled 25 million pounds of ground beef produced at a Nebraska plant, one of the biggest food recalls in U.S. history. The plant, linked to contamination by E. coli, was closed at the insistence of Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman.

Less familiar diseases, such as campylobacteriosis, which can be present in shellfish, or cyclospora infections, recently found on imported raspberries, have added to the spike in food-related illness.

Salmonella, a long-established concern with undercooked eggs and poultry, showed up in the past year in a new form that is resistant to antibiotics.

“We have many new pathogens to be concerned about,” says Dr. Penny Adcock, a medical epidemiologist with the CDC. “We first discovered E. coli in meats and now it’s more commonly associated with vegetables. We didn’t even know about E. coli 10 to 15 years ago.”

Yet fine-dining restaurants increasingly use raw and barely cooked ingredients, in part to make a statement about the freshness and superiority of their ingredients, according to Michael Moskwa, an instructor at the prestigious Johnson & Wales culinary school in Rhode Island.

After decades in which processed, canned and frozen foods dominated the American palate, today’s chefs are more interested in presenting foods in their most natural state, including raw.

Consumers know that chefs have better access to sushi-quality tuna, for instance, Moskwa says. “They have a little bit of trepidation about handling an ingredient like that themselves, so they say ‘I’m going to leave it to someone else.’ Or it’s something that they want to try but won’t make for the family because the husband doesn’t like it.”

Meat and fish can be as fresh as possible and still be a health hazard.

“There are just a multitude of different bacteria and parasites carried in fish and meat, and some things can’t be kept in control by the suppliers,” Adcock says. “And if you get sick, you can get sick again. It’s not like getting the measles and being immune.”

Several factors work together to cause the increase in disease.

Speedier animal slaughtering and food processing sometimes incorporate waste material into the raw food sold at market.

Another source is the billions of tons of food imported into the United States to meet consumers’ demand for fruits, vegetable and other products year-round, even when that item may be out of season. Accompanying the shipments are bacteria and parasites that may not be detected by U.S. inspectors.

Although concerns once were limited to animal foods, the contamination of fruits and vegetables with animal or human waste has created a new health risk.

“We still believe that our food supply is safe as any in the world,” says Arthur Whitmore, spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety. “But we do not recommend that meat and fish be eaten unless it is fully cooked.”