taxlady

Here's my last crabby post about the food safety lady on TV.

Another suggestion was colour-coded cutting boards. Red for raw meat, yellow for poultry, green for fruits and veggies, and black for cooked or ready to eat. She also prefers plastic because of the cut marks you get on wood.

She didn't mention the cut marks on plastic. It's kind of controversial, which is better, wood or plastic. But, there was a study at the University of California (Davis) that shows that wood is safer: Food Safety: Comparing Plastic and Wood Cutting Boards By Dean O. Cliver, Ph.D. I have heard of other studies with similar results. I don't know this for sure, but I think she hasn't studied it and is just using "common sense" and what other "experts" say.

She owns five cutting boards. They didn't look very big. I have five white plastic cutting boards (three small, two large) and a wooden board. I don't want mine colour coded - I have a dishwasher. I just put the meat and poultry boards in the dishwasher as soon as I'm done with them. I might need another vegi board while the first one is dirty. Without colour coding, I just grab a clean white one. Yeah, I think wood would be better, but I still have an ingrained prejudice in favour of plastic. I guess the next one will be wood. The last three were cheap at a yard sale.

The food safety specialist from the TV show that I wrote about yesterday said to use a "thin dishcloth" to wash dishes instead of a sponge. (Personally, I prefer a brush followed by thorough rinsing or the dishwasher.) The "thin dishcloth" she showed was a reusable/semi disposable, non-woven cloth usually called by brand name: J-Cloth in Canada & the UK or Handi-Wipe in the US. (I will refer to them as "J-Cloths" for convenience.) I agree that sponges harbour far more germs than "J-Cloths" and a counter wiped with a used sponge can't really be considered clean. That's because "J-Cloths" are thin and dry quickly; sponges don't. Of course, that assumes that you hang the "J-Cloth" up to dry. She also said that if your dishrag smells of mildew, it's not drying properly and it's time to chuck it. Wait a minute, these are reusable; you can put them in the laundry with bleach.

She goes on to tell us that she prefers that we dry our hands with a paper towel (Holy environment Batman!) and that if we use a tea towel (dish towel), we should change it every day. My goodness. I was taught not to use my tea towel to dry my hands. I have a separate, terry towel for that. I even have yellow tea towels that I only use for drying fruit and vegetables.

I use "J-Cloths" instead of paper towels most of the time. Spill something on the floor - wipe it with a "J-Cloth" and toss the "J-Cloth" in the laundry. I save the paper towels for broken glass and other stuff that shouldn't be rinsed down the drain. I even use "J-Cloths" to dry meat. Of course I take a clean one and then rinse and toss it in the laundry.

The nation that destroys its soil destroys itself.
--Franklin Delano Roosevelt