Vocal Voices

The media is headlining the "news" that 73% of all chickens sold in the UK are carrying campylobacter. The bug is the major cause of food poisoning in the UK with 280,000 cases every year, we are informed. The symptoms are described in great detail to scare us all senseless so that we will follow the helpful advice we are about to receive.

But hang on. The levels of contamination have been known about for years. Just about every TV cook has been telling us what to do forever. The information has been in TV programmes, food mags and newspaper food columns; and the infection rate is less than 0.006% per year. So why try to create a panic?

The "Barbeque Season" is upon us: that's why.

I know, talk about storm in a teacup

Next instalment: The dangers of leaving raw bangers and burgers out in the noonday sun.

Tornado in a Teaspoon....

Simple fact. properly cooking food kills 99% of all bacteria. What is left our systems have probably already learned to live with.... I wonder if anyone will ever tell the people just how much bacteria lives in the gut???? It wouldn't work without it.

The only advice one needs is to cook the chicken thoroughly - which we always do,
and to wash your hands well after handling uncooked meat. This is common sense.

I don't understand what all the fuss is about, either.

Can still have a chuckle remembering "Eggwina Currie" and the salmonella.

Now I still never eat raw eggs, that includes mayonnaise and tiramisu also. The advice still remains that older people and small children still should avoid them raw.

Rodo, I make my own mayo but only use Lion stamped free range eggs. The Lion scheme has effectively eliminated salmonella from UK eggs regardless of how they are produced.

Still, being careful does no harm.

I don't miss mayo really - never really liked it. I do make a kind of version of tiramisu that does us very nicely. I suppose I maybe am rather over careful with raw meat and fish products, but I think it has paid off as far as we are concerned. I would never eat raw fish either. My father was a fishmonger back in London and I know all about the things you can get from raw fish.

One thing I do find extremely worrying is, following the trend to cook meat more and more rare these days, I have seen people actually talking about cooking their pork rare. Now that really is insane.

I absolutely refuse to eat under-cooked meat.

It is disgusting when they show people on the TV eating meat that is almost red-raw.