The latest Salmonella outbreak has been linked to ground beef. (Photo: Getty Images)
You may have a beef with the latest Salmonella outbreak. Just make sure that it isn’t under-cooked ground beef.
Yes, folks, there is yet another Salmonella outbreak, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This time it is Salmonella Dublin that has people “Dublin” over with nausea, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and other bad gastrointestinal symptoms. So far, 10 reported cases have occurred in six states (California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas), resulting in eight hospitalizations and unfortunately one death.
For this outbreak, the culprit appears to be contaminated ground beef. The CDC hasn’t identified a common supplier of the meat and isn’t telling anyone to stop selling ground beef or eating well-cooked ground beef.
No, for now, just take precautions that you normally should take. Don’t eat raw or under-cooked ground beef. Don’t lick your fingers while handling raw ground beef. Don’t smear raw ground beef or anything that touched raw ground beef on your face. Do not use raw ground beef as a pillow, headphones, or a beanie.
Do thoroughly cook ground beef to an internal temperature of at least 160°F before eating it. Do thoroughly wash your hands for at least 20 seconds (which is like saying “I am Iron Man” at least four times) after you have touched raw ground beef. If you are going to cut the beef, the raw ground beef, wash everything that touched it thoroughly. Do all of these things to prevent the bad doo-doo that Salmonella can bring.
Here is a 3D illustration of Salmonella bacteria. (Getty Images).
Ten Salmonella outbreaks so far this year means that there has been 30 Salmonella outbreaks since the beginning of 2018, according to the CDC list of outbreaks. The foods involved in the outbreaks this year could make for quite a picnic:
Then there are the animal sources of outbreaks:
Note that pig ear dog treats is not listed under food because you really shouldn’t be munching on pig ear dog treats, unless you are a dog.
If you want to learn more about Salmonella, you can see what I wrote before for Forbes, and before that, and before that, and so forth and so forth. Yes, you may have a beef about not only this latest outbreak but the state of food safety in general. The question remains why have there been so many food-borne outbreaks since 2017?