Did you know that in Spain most of the food poisoning occurs at home and not in restaurants or by consuming industrial foods?
“It is logical that we get sick more times at home because it is where we usually eat . By probability it is the most normal. In fact, in many restaurants we can eat better than at home , although sometimes it seems the opposite because in those restaurants they do know what to do. Yes, they have received training in food handling and food safety and that knowledge sometimes we do not have when we cook at home ”, tells us Miguel Ángel Lurueña, doctor in food science and technology, agricultural technical engineer and author from the blog Petroleum jelly beans .
With regard to food and food products from the industry, Lurueña says that yes, they are safe: ” As for what we buy in stores, there is security, there we should not worry .” Gemma del Caño, a pharmaceutical specialist in R + D + ie Industry and a Master in Innovation, Biotechnology, Safety and Quality has the same opinion: “ Yes, we eat safe, not healthy . Food within the industry, if all the requirements are met, if they are not skipped into the bullfight as some companies have done, they are safe foods in the vast majority ”. In the case of bars and restaurants, the expert tells us what she does to decide whether to eat there or run away: “ What I pay close attention to is how the facility is, if it is clean. Sometimes you can see the kitchen . Also the bar counter, what practices do the waiters have for handling, if they clean everything with the same cloth… I look at all that before ordering something to eat ”.
Bacteria in food
Food can contain bacteria such as E. coli and cause food poisoning that occurs with nausea or vomiting, strong abdominal cramps, watery or bloody diarrhea, fatigue and fever. This bacterium, in particular, doubles in quantity every twenty minutes. A high load of bacteria can especially affect pregnant women, children, the elderly and immunosuppressed people.
As Gemma del Caño points out, our refrigerators contain Listeria, another bacteria that can cause us problems. But let’s not panic, if we do a correct and frequent cleaning of the inside of the refrigerator (drawers, shelves, walls …) and properly wash the bags that we use to make the purchase, we will not have to worry.
With regard to food, there are bacteria that can cause pathologies and others that cannot. Miguel Ángel Lurueña explains it to us in broad terms: “There are bacteria that can make us sick but still do not alter food, for example, Salmonella and Listeria. These are the most dangerous and the most frequent. You can eat an omelette that has Salmonella and that tastes very tasty because Salmonella does not alter the flavor. If it altered the taste, nobody would get bad because they wouldn’t eat it ”.
“A very common mistake is to think that if food smells bad or looks bad it is because it is bad and if it looks good or smells good, it is irrefutable proof that it is good. It is not like this. Simplifying a lot, there are two types of bacteria: some spoil food but do not have to be pathogenic and there are others that are pathogenic but do not have to spoil food. Normally we associate the two things because when a food smells bad, it is assumed that it already has many bacteria, and there can be bacteria of all kinds, those that spoil food and those that make us feel bad, which are sometimes the same ”.
On whether it is true that more food poisoning occurs in summer, Lurueña tells us that salmonellosis (a disease caused by Salmonella bacteria present in food) is seasonal, it occurs especially in summer. “This is so because high temperatures favor their development, especially if we leave the food at room temperature.
Next, we leave you a good battery of food safety tips to put into practice at home. Because now we know that there are more risks at home than outside of it.
This text has been produced with the advice of Gemma del Caño, a pharmaceutical specialist in R + D + ie Industry and a Master’s degree in Innovation, biotechnology, safety and quality; Miguel Ángel Lurueña, doctor in food science and technology, agricultural technical engineer and author of the blog Gominolas de petroleum and Rosa Porcel, doctor in biochemistry and molecular biology, researcher at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
