A new study estimates that nearly one in five urinary tract infections in Southern California may be caused by E. coli strains transmitted through contaminated meat—and pose a hidden foodborne risk to millions of people not just in California but across the US.
  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    2 days ago

    Very few serious replies here, so I’ll try one …

    I wonder if wearing gloves during food prep is the answer.

    Stay with me here

    • most infections are caused by by basic hygiene, scratching your hoo haw with hands that have touched other things, including other parts of your body.
    • you touch raw meat as part of food prep (and women do most of the cooking)
    • it’s well known and adopted that you need to wash your hands after touching raw meat, which ought to help prevent
    • fingernails. Slime from raw meat also gets under your fingernails and most of us do not wash that well.

    We have a series of observations leading to germs under fingernails after handling uncooked food as a possible disease vector. If it is a significant vector, how do you prevent it? I doubt people will start washing hands to that level of detail, but you already have a lot of cooks wearing latex gloves during food prep which should prevent it in the first place

    • philpo@feddit.orgEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      Sadly it won’t help much if at all (that is why they are not required in professional kitchens per se)- people still touch things they should not and then touch these things ungloved.

      There sadly are various studies proving this.

    • MalReynolds@piefed.socialEnglish
      15·
      1 day ago

      None of that matters if you cook to biological extinction (e.g. 60C for 1 minute, there are food safety curves and that was a guess, look it up). There are viruses and spores that can cope, but if that were a general issue we’d all be dead…

      • Ross_audio@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        1 day ago

        Prep occurs before cooking while the meat is raw.

        Unless you’re suggesting cooking our fingers after food prep I think I’ll let someone else try that first.

        • MalReynolds@piefed.socialEnglish
          12·
          23 hours ago

          Huh, what ? I mean it’s really easy to sterilize food by cooking (meat or not, hence food safety curves, how long at what temperature kills all bacteria). If you want your fingers in it that’s your issue.