13 percent of turkeys have salmonella By LANCE GAY Scripps Howard News Service November 19, 2001 - Many Americans could find an unwelcome guest at their Thanksgiving table - a new federal survey found that 13 percent of turkeys are contaminated with the salmonella bacteria responsible for 1.3 million illnesses and about 500 deaths a year in the United States. Government, industry and interest groups say consumers - who are expected to handle 45 million turkeys this Thanksgiving Day - should take heed from the warning that pathogens could be in their kitchen, and follow proper handling and preparation procedures to minimize risks. This year, for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture began compiling data on 2,200 turkey samples taken at 43 slaughtering plants. The government has been collecting data on chicken and beef plants since 1998. The report found that almost half the turkeys at one plant were contaminated with salmonella, and one in five birds contaminated with salmonella at 15 percent of the plants. Those high levels of contamination were balanced out by other plants with low contamination rates, resulting in the average of 13 percent contamination levels

Maybe we should all raise our own. Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), November 20, 2001

Answers

Thanks Bob! Good, practial advice with the holiday soon upon us. One of the most importatn things to remember is to wash everything that the raw meat touches with hot, soapy water. I often add a capful of bleach to my water. When I am cooking, I use this water to continually wipe everything off. I read once that almost all so-called stomach flus, were really mild cases of food poisoning.

-- Melissa (cmnorris@1st.net), November 20, 2001.

If it's that bad there, makes me wonder what the processing plants are like here. Any information on which plants have the lower levels? Would make a difference in the turkey I would buy.

-- Randal (randal@rhyme.cjb.net), November 20, 2001.

Ugh, that is pretty gross, isn't it? Those processing plants sound so disgusting.

Like Melissa, I do the bleach thing on a regular basis. I keep a spray bottle of bleach water by the kitchen sink, and about once a week I spray my counters, let sit for 10 minutes and then wipe down. I do the same for my cutting board whenever I cut raw meat/poultry, also spraying the surrounding countertop area, the knife I used, etc. The dishcloth goes immediately into a small dish of the bleach solution to soak briefly before it goes into the laundry. I also keep 2 different cutting boards, a wood one for meat, and a plastic one for vegies, breads etc. My family knows NOT to ever mix the two up! This is one of the only household habits that I'm sort of fanatic about, and it sort of carries over into my goat milking.

At the risk of incurring someone's wrath (just kidding!) over getting off subject, I use a bleach water solution and paper towels to wash the goats teats before milking. I wear disposable latex gloves while milking and dip my hands in the bleach water between each goat. Then follow up with a Nolvasan disinfectant spray afterward. Of course the milking pails, utensils, etc. get the bleach treatment too. I truly am not too worried about many "normal" germs, but when it comes to meat and milk, I figure you can't be too safe.

-- Lenette (kigervixen@webtv.net), November 20, 2001.

Maybe vegetarian is the way to go. A soy turkey.

Talk to you later.

-- Bob in WI (bjwick@hotmail.com), November 20, 2001.

Lenette, I just can't believe you went so far off topic!!! Ha,Ha! (that is truly a joke!!!!) It is almost impossible to stay on topic isn't it????? Your brain just leaps to a thousand things to say! Oh well, Mitch I tried!!!!!!

-- Melissa (me@home.net), November 20, 2001.