Spoiled Rotten

2 days later The team at FSI, Food Safety Investigation, is once again on the case. What happened here? Was it a double homicide? No weapons. No wounds. Were they poisoned? Was it a food fight gun ban? The FSI team checks for clues. I found a trail. Looks So where? The bathroom. Body fluids. It could be food poisoning. If it is foodborne illness, these diners aren't alone. The US Centers for Disease Control reveal that each year as many as 76 million Americans get sick from contaminated food. 50% of those Americans get sick because of improper hygiene and mishandling foods in their homes. Those are some nasty facts about sickness and disease. And we have a nasty job. But our investigations could help more people handle food safely. And save lives. The medical team is on the way where I'm pretty sure you're going to live. A foodborne illness creates microbes or bacteria that settle in the digestive tract. The most common types of dangerous bacteria are salmonella. It spreads through meat, poultry, eggs, or milk products. E. coli. It is found in ground beef, c Staffelococcus, or staff. It spreads in meat, cream-filled baked goods, poultry, eggs, potato salad, and sandwich fillings. Foodborne illness may feel I know, I've had it. The symptoms are a lot a Nausea, fever, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps. We have to solve t We'll retrace our steps. People analyze the food clues and we'll figure out w Let's take a look at the chart. Did the victims clean, separate, cook, and c The FSI team knows that when it comes to food safety, you can't be too careful. So they check in with the clean, separate, cook, and c Let's fill you up link with FSI headquarters for confirmation. Cooper here. Glad to help. The kitchen is clean. That's the first food safety rule. Almost half of all foodborne illness could be eliminated if people would just wash their hands around food. Wash your hands with hot, soapy water and really scrub for 20 seconds and sing the ABC song. I just sing happy birthday twice. Do you t Hey, pay attention please. Next, wash the counters or any surface where you prepare food. That goes for utensils and cutting boards as well. Wash them with hot water and soap or run them through the dishwasher. Also, make sure your clot Next, clean the food. Wash and scrub fruits and vegetables under cold running water. Cleanliness helps prevent foodborne illness. Cleanliness reduces risks. So keep food, utensils, clot I'll put solowits on the line to explain the second food safety rule, separate. I'll give you a quick review about how and why we separate food. Bacteria that causes food illness can spread quickly from raw meat to vegetables, fruit, bread or any other food products. When making foods with c When grilling, use a different plate after the meat is cooked. Otherwise, it could be. . . Wow, you are dramatic. Well, t W After shopping, put the groceries away immediately. In the refrigerator, put meats into separate jars so that raw juices don't drip onto other foods. Check those expiration dates to keep your food fresh. And if you use a cutting board or plate to prepare meat, don't use it for anyt Cross-contamination could have made your victims sick. Thanks for the refresher. What you have on cooking. Hey Cooper, the FSI team needs you again. They need to know about safe cooking. We're going to turn up the heat with food safety rule n Cook. Eat foods to a How hot is hot? Really hot. A meat thermometer could give you a correct accurate temperature. Beef roasts are done at 145 degrees. Poultry at 180 degrees. So use a meat thermometer. And if you don't have a meat thermometer, check the color. If it's pink, you could sink. So cook the food some more. If you're a microwave cook, rotate the dish or stir the food and cook all the way through. You want fish to be a solid color and flake when you touch it with a fork. You may want to drink raw eggs for nutrients. But only if they're pasteurized. Cook egg w If you can't resist eating cookie dough, make it with pasteurized raw eggs. But really, baked chocolate c Now back to solid wits for c Now let's c You've heard that you need to heat foods to above 140 degrees to kill bacteria. Well, take away 100 degrees and c Or colder to also be safe. Cold temperatures help prevent food bacteria from growing. Put mandates on our dairy products in the refrigerator or cooler as soon as possible after shopping or eating. Refrigerate perishable foods right away or at least wit If you have a lot of food to cool, place it in smaller containers for faster c If you need to leave foods out, Microbes multiply in food with warmth, time and moisture. When you have food to thaw and defrost, switch it from the freezer to the refrigerator the day before instead of thawing it on a countertop all day. Sticking in the microwave is a faster and also safer defrosting option. Be safe so it won't get into that 40 to 140 danger zone. We hope we help you find out what happened to the victims. We can hear their groans over the phone right now. Too bad being sick is lousy. Thanks to the refresher. Glad to help. Good luck. Port back to us on the findings. Filled with protective gloves, swabs and a black light, the FSI interns look for clues in the kitchen, there was definitely food prepping here. T And we're in luck. The security camera was on so maybe there will be some clues as to why they're so sick. Looks Let's fast forward. They're back. Three hours later. Look, she'smelling the pizza to see if it's okay to eat. Stop the tape! People t Wrong. They should have pitched the perishable food. Can I turn the video back on? Sure. The tape is a banana of clues, all pointing to food-borne illness. Now she's eating potato salad out of the container. Hey, that's been sitting out for three hours! Better won't stay in her stomach three hours. Look, she's cutting up unwashed vegetables and on the same cutting board as the hamburger without was Speaking of was Now she'sitting on the counter with her cat. Counters are for prepping, not for sitting. T Nobody wash your hands before prepping the food. I know, but let'see what other health hazards they created. Are you brave enough to look in the refrigerator? The FSI team approaches the refrigerator. They check the temperature. It's 44 degrees. They don't have to dig too deep to find other food safety violations. When open cans shouldn't go back in the refrigerator, put it in a plastic container. The milk is already two weeks past the sell-by date. Many food packages also show expiration dates. The hamburger juice is dripping on the carrots. Ugh, food safety investigation can be disgusting and t When the victims recover, they're going to have to spend a weekend scrubbing t Let's take another look at the tape. And she's coug Disgusting. She's licking her fingers. Now they're drinking from the milk carton. They're wiping up the floor with a dishcloth. Let's fast forward. I want to see what happened to the hamburger they cooked. It was already contaminated, but I have a hunch they made it worse. Oh dear. They didn't use a food thermometer to be sure it's cooked completely. What a mess. And what we have here is a feast that is certain to send anyone to the emergency room. Now they are sick. Very sick. There are too many sources of contamination. We'll have to sign some samples off to the food investigation team to analyze. Victims murdered every food safety rule made themselves sick. It was a self-inflicted sickness. They didn't clean their hands, the utensils, or the food. If they had washed their hands in hot soapy water long enough to sing the ABC song, it would have been a good start. Next, they should have cleaned the counters, cutting board, and all the utensils. And the vegetables should have been washed and scrubbed under running water. The next food safety rule they murdered was separate. The food preparation was downright frightening. The separate lab expert could have saved them a lot of distress. Callowich said to keep raw meat and poultry away from other food products, even in the grocery cart and in the refrigerator. During preparation, separate meats and poultry to make sure no raw juices contaminate vegetables or other foods. Use different cutting boards and plates. The cooking procedures were totally unsafe. They didn't fry the hamburger long enough. They needed Cooper's advice. He said to use a meat thermometer to make sure their meat and poultry reached recommended temperatures. Check for cold spots in microwave food and continue cooking. Our sickly diners needed to c All their food, that is, they left groceries out for nearly three hours. Had they met up with the c Perishable foods should never be left unrefrigerated for more than two hours. The temperature in a refrigerator should be set at 40 degrees or lower. Food should be thawed in the refrigerator or microwave rather than on the kitchen counter. The lab will really have their work cut out for them with all t Looks They'll survive. They'll feel better in a few days. I'm glad to hear that. I guess you can't send people to jail for murdering food safety procedures. But I am sentencing them to learn food safety rules. But let's live it to them as we get well-carned. Sounds