Food Safety Precautions During Extreme Weather

When extreme weather conditions result in environmental hazards such as flooding, it is important to still practice food safety measures to help support your health. Safe food handling precautions are important under optimal conditions, but they should also be practiced under stressed, emergency conditions as well. In addition to these actions, there are more considerations to be mindful of in cases of long and short-term power outages. Keep in the Cold Remember to keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed during power outages to maintain the cold temperature. Use appliance thermometers in your refrigerator and freezer to help determine if food is safe during power outages. Refrigerator temperature should be 40° F or lower and the freezer should be 0° F or lower. Without power, a refrigerator will likely keep food at a safe temperature for about four hours if the doors are kept closed.  Without power, a full freezer will stay cold for 48 hours, and a half-full freezer will stay cold for about a day. Smell Won’t Tell Do not rely on the appearance or smell of a food item to determine its safety.  It’s important to use a thermometer to determine a food’s safety. If a thermometer was not kept inside the freezer to gauge temperature, use a food thermometer on each item to determine safety.  For items in the freezer to be safe to re-freeze or prep consume, they should have an internal temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  If meats, eggs or leftovers have been above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours, throw them out. When in Doubt, Throw it out If you are unsure about the safety of food items that were in your refrigerator or freezer during a power outage or anytime, THROW IT OUT! We typically encourage not wasting food, but in […]

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The Holidays: Celebrating With Safety

The weather is getting cooler, and as fall and winter holidays approach, many of us are thinking about how we can celebrate with friends, family and food in a safe manner. In addition to the many traditional food safety precautions we should plan to follow, this year there are more adjustments we can make to support our celebrations with pandemic preparedness. The following food safety tips will help you celebrate while avoiding food safety faux pas. Read on for ways you can make sure that foodborne illness and COVID-19 know they are not invited to the party! Talking turkey: Thawing, cooking, and avoiding foodborne illness Turkey and other types of poultry and meat are popular choices for family meals during this time of year—but it’s important to consume them safely. Eating raw or undercooked poultry (and meat) can lead to foodborne illness, which can be very serious. Foodborne illness from undercooked or raw poultry can be caused by Campylobacter, Clostridium perfringens, Listeria monocytogenes and Salmonella. Symptoms of related foodborne illnesses can vary from person to person but are usually associated with nausea, stomach cramps, diarrhea and vomiting (as well as dehydration in many cases). If you purchase a turkey in advance of your holiday celebration, a great way to keep it fresh and safe before you are ready to cook it is by freezing it. After freezing, proper defrosting techniques are needed to ensure quality and safety. The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) advises that the proper way to thaw a turkey or any other type of meat is NOT to leave it out at room temperature or anywhere else that might fluctuate in temperature. Instead, there are three ways to thaw poultry and meat safely: in a refrigerator, in cold water, or […]

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Food Safety Precautions During Extreme Weather

When extreme weather conditions result in hazards such as power outages, it is extra important to practice food safety measures to help support your health. Safe food handling precautions are important under optimal conditions, but they should also be practiced under stressed, emergency conditions as well. In addition to these actions, there are more considerations to be mindful of in cases of long and short-term power outages. Keep in the Cold Remember to keep refrigerator and freezer doors closed during power outages to maintain the cold temperature. Use appliance thermometers in your refrigerator and freezer to help determine if food is safe during power outages. Refrigerator temperature should be 40° F or lower and the freezer should be 0° F or lower. Without power, a refrigerator will likely keep food at a safe temperature for about four hours if the doors are kept closed.  Without power, a full freezer will stay cold for 48 hours, and a half-full freezer will stay cold for about a day. Smell Won’t Tell Do not rely on the appearance or smell of a food item to determine its safety.  It’s important to use a thermometer to determine a food’s safety. If a thermometer was not kept inside the freezer to gauge temperature, use a food thermometer on each item to determine safety.  For items in the freezer to be safe to re-freeze or prep consume, they should have an internal temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  If meats, eggs or leftovers have been above 40 degrees Fahrenheit for more than two hours, throw them out. When in Doubt, Throw it out If you are unsure about the safety of food items that were in your refrigerator or freezer during a power outage or anytime, THROW IT OUT! We typically encourage not wasting food, but in […]

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What A Pediatric Nutrition Expert Says About Baby Food and Infant Formula

In light of a recent wave of media coverage related to a report stating that “alarming” levels of arsenic, lead and cadmium were found in baby food, we called a pediatric nutrition expert to help us navigate this news cycle. Dr. Keith T. Ayoob, a pediatric nutritionist and registered dietitian at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, answered our questions about the safety of baby food currently on the market today. Here are Dr. Ayoob’s tips for parents: Based on the recent report, is there any reason to change a child’s diet? Not really. I wouldn’t change my recommendations about baby food, infant formula or a child’s diet based on one report. I also have strong concerns about it.  It’s not clear why the study and results were not submitted to a peer-reviewed journal of experts where toxicologists and other professionals could review the data, the findings and the context for the conclusions. For example, what trace amounts of metal have been found in baby food?  So, if they are detected in baby food, is this something new?  Wouldn’t the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) pull these products off the market? Wouldn’t we see a public health outbreak?  My experience and skills tell me this is not something new or anything to be alarmed about.  Peer-review would help ensure that any conclusions would be placed in the proper context whereas this latest incredible-to-believe piece of work got smeared across our media and news outlets without any context for the consumer. It troubles me to see the rapid spread of misinformation as a clinician who sees children regularly. I have the responsibility for giving evidence-based advice to parents and caregivers of all economic and cultural backgrounds.  Just as troubling is an organization can advocate for “greater transparency” on labels, yet doesn’t […]

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A Little Q&A on CRISPR Cows

While the majority of all our food has come from farms for hundreds of years, agricultural practices have changed over time, largely due to advances in farming technology. In more recent years, these developments have included the use of biotechnology techniques such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). We’ve explained previously that CRISPR is one of the bioengineering methods that can be used to alter the genetic information in the cells of living things—plants, fruits, vegetables, and more. That genetic information is contained in what we know as the fundamental building block of life—DNA. DNA can produce proteins that define what a living organism’s cells do or don’t do. To use an analogy from another type of technology, DNA acts in a way similar to how software controls the operation of a computer. Food science and related-field researchers all over the world have been using CRISPR to perform genetic alterations in cells in order to alter food characteristics in ways that support the reliability of our food system. As mentioned above, CRISPR has been primarily used so far to alter the cells of plants, fruits and veggies. However, we’ve recently learned of the work being done by researcher Alison Van Eenennaam, Ph.D., a professor at the University of California, Davis, who is using CRISPR on a new target: food-producing cows. To learn more about Dr. Eenennaam’s groundbreaking work, we asked her to field a few questions. Q: How is your research team using CRISPR technology? A: Gene editing is a technique that can be used to introduce useful genetic variations into [animal] breeding programs. It involves the use of enzymes that cut DNA at a specific sequence (site-specific nucleases, e.g. CRISPR-Cas9), thereby introducing a break into the DNA at a targeted location. Depending upon how that break is […]

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The Basics of the Volumetrics Diet

The Volumetrics diet was developed by Dr. Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Penn State University, with the intention of creating a dietary approach that emphasizes healthy eating patterns rather than a structured, restrictive diet. The Volumetrics series of books is centered around dietary “energy density” and “nutrient density.” Foods with high energy density have a higher calorie content in a given portion, while those with low energy density have fewer calories per portion. Similarly, foods that are nutrient-dense provide high levels of nutrients relative to the calories they contain, often having little or no saturated fat, sodium or added sugars. The Volumetrics diet emphasizes eating low-energy-dense, high-nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, whole grains and low-fat dairy. Conversely, high-energy-dense foods, such as those with a high proportion of unhealthy fats or sugar and little moisture, are recommended to be limited. The idea is that by focusing on eating foods that are lower in calories and higher in water and important nutrients like fiber, the body will feel satisfied while still losing weight. Guidelines for the Volumetrics diet Instead of singling out specific foods or food groups to avoid, the Volumetrics philosophy is more about what to eat. Foods are divided into four groups based on their energy density that help with meal planning and portion control. Group 1: Foods including non-starchy fruits and vegetables, nonfat milk and broth-based soups Group 2: Foods including starchy fruits and vegetables, grains, breakfast cereal, low-fat meat, legumes and low-fat mixed dishes Group 3: Foods including meat, cheese, pizza, French fries, salad dressing, bread, pretzels, ice cream and cake Group 4: Foods including crackers, chips, chocolate candies, cookies, nuts, butter and oil Foods contained within Group 1 are very low in energy density and are considered “free” foods to eat any time. The energy density […]

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What Is Baby-Led Weaning?

Highlights The basics Weaning is the time when infants transition from breastfeeding or infant formula to solid foods. The process is not immediate, but incremental. It’s an important time in the development of a baby’s food preferences and impacts a baby’s eating behaviors and body weight. Traditional weaning involves introducing solid foods to babies via spoon-feeding. In recent years, an alternative approach to introducing complementary foods has gained popularity: baby-led weaning (BLW). The baby-led method was first coined by Gill Rapley in 2005. It’s a type of weaning that involves a baby being offered solid foods for self-feeding, with no help from an adult. This style of infant feeding is meant to encourage self-regulation and simpler feeding experiences due to the baby eating with the family instead of separately. How does it work? In traditional weaning, babies are spoon-fed purees or mashes and are eventually offered the same foods as the family. With baby-led weaning, parents offer baby-sized pieces of whatever the family is eating from the start. With baby-led weaning, parents oversee what foods to offer as well as when and in what form they will be presented. Babies then choose from the parents’ food offerings and decide how much and how quickly to eat. More simply: Baby-led weaning relies on a baby’s innate ability to respond to cues for hunger and satiety and is thought to promote healthy weight gain. However, some health professionals are concerned that baby-led weaning increases the risk of choking and may not provide adequate nutrients to a growing baby. Let’s look at what the evidence says about this alternative feeding approach and whether it might be something worth trying. What does the evidence say? One systematic review critically examined the current evidence about the baby-led weaning approach and assessed whether or not it […]

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Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fact Sheet

Download the Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fact Sheet here It is well-established that dietary fats are an important part of a healthy and balanced diet. They add flavor and texture to foods and at the same time can be a source of health-promoting, vital nutrients. Of particular interest is a subgroup of dietary fats known as omega-3 fatty acids. These fats gained the attention of researchers in the late 1970s during observational studies of Greenland Inuits. The low occurrence of coronary heart disease (CHD) in Inuits was attributed to their traditional diet, which is rich in marine animals and fish.¹ Other population studies have also shown that cultures with high fish consumption, such as Japan, have similarly low rates of CHD mortality.² Discoveries like these jumpstarted a massive body of research on omega-3 fatty acids and their effects on human health. This fact sheet covers the current state of the science on these important compounds, as well as dietary recommendations and food sources of omega-3 fatty acids. What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids? Understanding the role of omega-3 fatty acids in human health begins with knowledge of the chemical makeup of fatty acids, which are distinguished based on the number of unsaturated bonds between carbon atoms in the fatty acid chain. Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) have more than one cis double bond in their carbon chain. Omega-3 fatty acids, including alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), are a type of PUFA. These omega-3 fatty acids contain their first double bond on the third carbon molecule from the methyl (or omega) end of the fatty acid’s carbon chain.³ The naming of each fatty acid provides information regarding its chemical structure. As an example, DHA has a structure of 22:6n-3. The first part of the name (22:6) indicates that DHA […]

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