Safe Fish To Eat

DISHING IT OUT: Helpful tips on safe food practices

Who better to learn from about safe food-serving practices in the kitchen than College of the Redwood's Hospitality, Restaurant and Culinary program instructor Gaye Warren? She's been a “Servsafe” Food Safety teacher for the past 15 years. Currently working on her doctorate of education, she is also a full-time professor for the International Culinary School at the Art Institutes.

No matter where Warren is teaching or what she is cooking, safe food practices are always on her mind.

”There are three areas that are very important in food safety: washing hands, cross-contamination and handling foods safely via temperatures,” said Warren. “Most individuals think to wash their hands after using the restroom but won't wash in between cooking tasks especially when working with raw products.

”The rule is one should wash hands before and after handling raw proteins and when you change tasks. All cooks should wash hands if they touch any part of their hair, face or body, which can include sneezing or coughing. In addition, touching the garbage, any chemicals, dirty dishes or even touching towels or aprons can contaminate your food. A heightened awareness of washing your hands between tasks will lower the risk of cross-contamination.”

Warren said cross-contamination is most likely to happen at home when using the same cutting board and knives for all cooking tasks and not sanitizing. Towels and sponges can also be common culprits for cross-contamination.

”Bleach is a great way to disinfect sponges and while not environmentally correct, paper towels are safer than using cloth towels over and over,” she said.

Most home cooks are good about cleaning, but do not perform the next step -- sanitizing their kitchens. According to Warren, it's as easy as mixing one capful of bleach per one gallon of water for the ideal solution. She also recommends sanitizing all surface areas, cutting boards and equipment. After cleaning, allow them to air dry.

Another problem in household kitchens is the way food is defrosted, with special attention to meats, poultry and fish.

”It is not uncommon for food to be left in a sink to defrost overnight,” said Warren. “While many people think they can kill bacteria by cooking it, the reality is many bacteria and viruses remain even after cooking. The three best ways to thaw are in the refrigerator, via a microwave or running under cold water.

Earthtalk: Are farm-raised fish safe to eat? - The Hour

Dear EarthTalk: I thought “farm raised” was the way to go when buying fish, to avoid mercury contamination. But are there other concerns about farm raised that make some fish a poor choice for good health?  What are the safest fish to buy and which should be avoided? And what about those frozen blocks of fish I get at Trader Joe’s? Are they safe to eat? Farm-raised fish may have somewhat less exposure to mercury than their wild free-foraging cousins because they are usually fed a controlled diet, often consisting of more grains and soy, a cheaper and more abundant source of calories, than fishmeal. But they can still absorb mercury, since most fish farms are themselves located in the ocean, just close to or abutting the shoreline. Farmed fish can also absorb PCBs and dioxins, as the near-shore waters they occupy are the first stop for run-off from land-based sources of pollution. And the fact that their primary feed source comes from conventionally grown terrestrial crops means that their diets can include trace amounts of pesticides and herbicides as well. Also, most farmed fish are exposed to dose after dose of antibiotics to keep diseases and pests at bay in their crowded underwater pens, much in the way “factory farmed” land animals are drugged to help them cope with cramped, unsanitary conditions. In fact, studies have shown that farm-raised fish have more toxins overall than their wild-caught cousins, though exceptions of course do exist. The best way to know which fish are safe and which are not is to download a region-specific seafood buying guide from the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. These guides aid the decision-making process when shopping for seafood in a store or ordering it at a restaurant by dividing the fish available in that part of the country into three categories: Best Choices, Good Alternatives and Avoid. And bring your Seafood Watch guide to Trader Joe’s as well—at least for now. In 2010, after months of lobbying by Greenpeace and a growing number of concerned shoppers, Trader Joe’s agreed to offer only “sustainable” seafood in its stores by the end of 2012. To its credit, they already removed endangered Chilean Sea Bass from shelves in 2005, followed by Orange Roughy in 2009 and Red Snapper in 2010. In the spirit of its recent pledge, however, Trader Joe’s is now working with third-party, science-based organizations to establish definitions and parameters for addressing customer concerns about overfishing, destructive catch or production methods, and the importance of marine reserves. Until 2013 at Trader Joe’s—and indefinitely at other stores that haven’t made specific commitments regarding the sustainability of their seafood—make sure to check that labels disclose the type of fish for sale and its source in regard to wild or farm-raised, and then check that info against the Seafood Watch list. CONTACTS: Seafood Watch, www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/seafoodwatch.aspx; Trader Joe’s “Note to Our Customers about Trader Joe’s Seafood,” www.traderjoes.com/about/customer-updates.asp.

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