ASM: Off the menu
Walk around for too long at this meeting and suddenly everything seems to be swarming with potentially evil bacteria. But orange juice? Could they deprive me of that?
Oh yes. Once, food poisoning was the realm of chicken and eggs and greasy joints with roach-ridden kitchens. Not any more.
Food microbiologist Larry Beuchat of the University of Georgia tells me that there have been several outbreaks of Salmonella from orange juice (like the freshly squeezed kind). The bugs were picked up, who knows where, during harvesting or handling. Orange juice was once considered safe because it is so acidic, but in fact the hardy Salmonella can survive in there. You’re OK with pasteurised stuff though.
Other foods to cross off the shopping list (if you are the worrying kind): chocolate, peanut butter, cake mix. All have been linked to food poisoning. Even dried infant formula. And tomatoes are definitely on the borderline.
Come on, I say, do you drink unpasteurised orange juice? No, Beuchat says, nor apple juice or oysters.
But hell, I’m feeling reckless. I might just order up a PB&J and a glass of OJ anyway.