By Deanne Revel
Salmonella in uncooked chicken breasts in Lysol commercials, turtles at the pet store and maybe SCAD eateries?
According to Chatham County Health Department’s Robert Thornton, there have been five recent cases of salmonella in the state of Georgia; however, there are no matches in the Savannah metropolitan or surrounding area, which Thornton defines as the eight counties along the coast of Georgia.
“40,000 cases of salmonella are recorded each year, but we think it’s much higher because so many go unnoticed or undiagnosed,” Thornton says.
The problem is that there are many different types and species of salmonella, and even when a type is pin-pointed, there can be sub groups of each species. Each strain of salmonella and each species has its own fingerprint. These fingerprints go into a national database. When numbers increase and species match, investigations begin.
The current strain of salmonella, Typhimurium, has been linked to King Nut peanut butter. This is the second time a species of salmonella has used peanut butter as a medium. King Nut distributes their peanut butter through large food service accounts like nursing homes and institutions – institutions like SCAD.
Curtis Bolden, general manager for SCAD Dining, says SCAD is part of an international food service program called Sodexo, Inc., which in their mission statement on their Web site, claims to be “the leader in integrated food service and facilities management.”
Sodexo has monitors that watch what produce is purchased. During the last salmonella outbreak and scare last summer, Bolden says SCAD was fully aware and protected. “These food gurus watch over us and tell us what and where to buy from.”
SCAD eateries also have the Hazardous Analysis standard. “We monitor the temperature of food and record it every fifteen minutes,” Bolden says. Third party groups audit these records once per year.
SCAD Dining just received two gold score plaques presented by the Vice President of Sodexo. A gold score is when a kitchen earns a 100 on both the food and physical side of food services. The physical part accounts for employees and environment – like protective gear.
Symptoms of salmonella, usually abdominal cramps and bloody diarrhea, can appear as soon as two hours after coming into contact with a species. Most of the time these cases go undiagnosed. People think they have a bad stomach bug and won’t go to the doctor. These mild cases last on average about four days. The only way to determine if you have salmonella is to get a stool sample tested, which takes forty-eight to ninety-six hours.
These are mild, ideal cases. For those with compromising immune health, like most elderly, or those already on immune stimulating drugs, like cancer patients, salmonella makes it all too easy to development dehydration. Loss of electrolytes can be detrimental to these cases.
“The biggest way to prevent salmonella,” Thornton says, “is hand hygiene.” Hand hygiene is more than just washing your hands. Use hand sanitizer or wash properly.
“Just sticking your hands under the sink water won’t clean them.”
Use soapy, warm water and wash for 15 seconds completely under the water. “Most people don’t know how long fifteen seconds is,” Thornton notes. If you can sing “Happy Birthday” or “The Alphabet Song” in the time it takes you to wash your hands, you have successfully sanitized your hands.
In the kitchen, Thornton offers these truisms:
Heat kills germs.
Cook per instruction.
One in 1,000 eggs has salmonella.
Pay special attention to countertops and cutting boards.
Salmonella can survive on a surface like a cutting board for a week. All bacteria has reservoirs, so, it can stay permanently on living beings. These are called convalescent carriers and it is very rare for humans, but is most commonly seen in turtles and birds.
“That’s why salmonella cases shoot up around Easter. Because people used to give baby chicks as presents on Easter.”
The most common way to come into contact with salmonella is touching a surface recently touched by someone who has it. Thornton provides an example, “Say you go to the bathroom and don’t wash your hands, but then you make a sandwich for someone.”
Unless you don’t wash your own hands, Bolden says, “You have nothing to worry about when dining at SCAD.”
For additional health and dining concerns or information on Sodexo, contact SCAD Dining Services at (912) 525-4483.
Illustration by Katrina Kopeloff.
