Just read the book "Fast Food Nation" from Eric Schlosser and I don't know what to eat in my next four week vacations in the US.It looks like there are E.Coli inside every burguer or chicken...Is it serious ?

Yes, it's very serious. Some stopped going to fast food places. Some stopped eating meat. Some just stopped eating. Some just stopped...

The histrionics are taking over the world.

What do you expect in a nation that gets most of its information from television and Hollywood. You can't name a bigger group of histrionics than those two.

http://dir.salon.com/books/feature/2...ser/index.html

Most Americans take their scientific information from Martha Stewart. What do you expect???

Poison mushrooms are organic.

Go figure.

Good point. These folks believe that anything that says organic is good for you. Similar to the same embrace people give "all natural" in the herbal markets.

Ain't necessarily so.

I am not too worried. This weekend I bought a few lbs. of ground meat. I have heard on talk shows that not all E Coli are deadly. I think the newest thread of E Coli is taken as a precaution rather than an epidemic.

Stephanie, E. Coli is one of the most prevalent types of bacteria in the human intestine.
It is present in huge quantities in all humans.
It aids in digestion, it helps prevent overgrowth of other harmful bacteria and even helps elaborate vitamins B12 and K.
As with mushrooms and insects there are many types of E. Coli, most of which are not harmful to humans.
A few of are very toxic, however.
The burger references are to E. Coli O157:H7 which has emerged relatively recently (first identified in 1993).

Jack,
Thank you for one of the only factual replies I've ever read on this site. You are very helpful and informative.

Jack,
Can you tell me if sushi is safe to eat if it's fresh and comes from a reputable sushi restaurant?

How many people have you read about dying from eating sushi recently? How many people eat sushi everyday in the US....millions.

Common Sense,
Actually there are many cases of sushi being contaminated with parasites. It's a valid question and you validate your stupidity by your response.

Craig

So your answer, I presume, is that it is not safe to eat sushi.

If Chris and Craig are the same person he has already answered his own question.

I did not post "So I presume that it's not safe to eat sushi".
I am asking because I've heard the same things about parasites.
Unfortunately there are stupid imposters here that think they're sly.

Someone's impersonating me?
Where?
I'l kick their lily a$$ !!!

ttt

Food today is largely produced my mega-business-farms and then has many stops along the way to our table. So sanitation is an issue not just on the farm, but in the various storing, packing, etc. stops it makes. Just leave perishable food on a loading dock too long and you have problems. When Grandma used to kill a checken in the backyard, even though she probably did not have hig-tech sanitizing equipment, it had only 2 stops before it was dinner.

Every year there are some food-safety stories that are scarey. Migrant workers who could not wash their hands after using a bathroom (or a field) before they picked berries or grapes was one from a few years ago.

E coli is made harmless by cooking well. Goodbye rare hamburgers. It is more of a problem in ground beef because of the surface area that is created when meat is ground (it can't, for example, burrow its way into a roast).

So I think we are left with washing fruits and veggies, cooking meat well, not eating unpasteurized dairy. Food sanitation in this country is still generally excellent.

And then, we can start worrying about the pesticides, hormones, etc. on or in food - have no answer for that.