Food Safety Hotline Open
As we enter the thick of the canning and preservation season, it’s good to know that there’s a place that can answer your questions.
The Washington State University Cooperative Extension office has set up a food preservation and safety hotline at (877) 541-2631. The service is open from 9 a.m. to noon, Monday through Friday through Oct. 1.
Trained food safety advisors and volunteers will staff the hotline to answer your questions. Extension offices throughout the state receive around 25,000 calls a year on food safety and food preservation questions, most of them about canning.
Pump up the garlic
News reports about E. coli-tainted beef have left many people a bit nervous about what they’re eating. But there may be a garlic-flavored remedy.
A new report from Kansas State University microbiologists says that adding a few teaspoons of garlic powder to ground beef increases your protection against the dangerous bacteria.
Adding 3 to 5 teaspoons of garlic powder to 2.2 pounds of ground beef kills up to 97 percent of the dangerous pathogens — even when the meat is undercooked, the report says.
Two years ago the same researchers found that five common spices — garlic, clove, oregano, cinnamon and sage — had the potential to kill E. coli.
More garlic, please
Speaking of garlic, seems many of us are already piling it on. Garlic consumption more than tripled during the 1990s. That’s largely because of its new role as a dietary supplement and herbal remedy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service reports. According to the government agency, Americans consumed 3.1 pounds of garlic per person in 1999, compared with 1 pound in 1989.
Cuckoo for coconut
After the mini-hamburger dessert cookie was featured two weeks ago in Fresh Sheet, we received calls from several readers who tell us that shredded coconut dyed with green food coloring looks just like real lettuce on the burger treats.
Can’t eat just one?
Potato chip lovers rejoice! There’s a potato-chip-of-the-month club that will deliver the salty treats to your door. Call (800) 313-2332 to place an order.