Protect Your Baby and Yourself From Listeriosis 1
Posted by admin on June 24th, 2009Pregnant women are at high risk for getting sick from Listeria, harmful bacteria found in many foods. Listeria can lead to a disease called listeriosis. Listeriosis can cause miscarriage, premature delivery, serious sickness, or death of a newborn baby. If you are pregnant, you need to know what foods are safe to eat.
Because the illness could take weeks to show up, you may not know you have it.
Early signs may include fever, chills, muscle aches, diarrhea, and upset stomach.
At first, you may feel as if you have the flu. Later on, you could have a stiff neck, headache, convulsions, or lose your balance.
Every year, 2,500 Americans become sick from listeriosis, with 1 out of 5 dying from the illness.
What should I do If I think I have listeriosis?
Call your doctor, nurse, or health clinic if you have any of the signs. If you have listeriosis, your doctor can treat you.
Fight Bacteria – Fight BAC!®
1 Clean: Wash hands often with soap and warm water. Use clean dishes, spoons, knives, and forks. Wash countertops with hot soapy water and clean up spills right away.
2 Separate: Keep raw meat, fish, and poultry away from other food that will not be cooked.
3 Cook: Cook food to a safe minimum internal temperature. Check with a food thermometer. Ground beef 160 °F; Pork 160 °F; Poultry 165 °F.
4 Chill: Refrigerate or freeze within 2 hours–refrigerate or freeze within 1 hour in hot weather (above 90 °F). Don’t leave meat, fish, poultry, or cooked food sitting out.
What can I do to keep my food safe?
* Listeria can grow in the refrigerator. The refrigerator should be 40 °F or lower, and the freezer 0 °F or lower. Use a refrigerator thermometer to check your refrigerator’s inside temperature.
* Clean up all spills in your refrigerator right away–especially juices from hot dog packages or raw meat or chicken/turkey.
* Clean the inside walls and shelves of your refrigerator with hot water and liquid soap, then rinse.
* Use precooked or ready-to-eat food as soon as you can. Don’t store it in the refrigerator too long.
* Wash your hands after you touch hot dogs, raw meat, chicken, turkey, or seafood or their juices.
For more information about food safety:
U.S. Department of Agriculture
Food Safety and Inspection Service
www.fsis.usda.gov
Tags: Listeriosis
You really make good articles I would say. This is the first time I visited your site and so far I am impressed with the research you made to make this article awesome. Good Job!