Cross-contamination – is a scientific term which describes the transfer of bacteria from foods, hands, utensils or food preparation surfaces to a food we plan to eat. This is a particular problem with the liquids/juices from raw meat or poultry allowing nanobugslike salmonella to end up exactly where we...
Many cooks are convinced that if you stuff a turkey with the dressing, it will be more flavorful and moist. That may be true. However, the risk of salmonella incubating in the turkey cavity is increased pretty dramatically because of the density of the foodstuff and the difficulty in...
Ok. It’s been a week now since Earth Day. Are there any sustained changes in your lifestyle? I did find out that Earth Day started 38 years ago. Before Earth Day, I can remember the “Don’t be a Litterbug” Campaign in the 1960’s. Before that...
Today is Earth Day. I don’t know how many years we have been recognizing this day but it seems to have grown into a meaningful reminder for us of our responsibility to maintain this planet. I have recently been researching about “Living Green” concepts in...
Stop! Resist the temptation to get the children a baby chick as part of your Easter/Spring celebration. Tagging along with those irresistible baby chicks many families “adopt” during Easter season, is a nanobug that you surely didn’t want to bring into your home: Salmonella enteritidis....
It is time for the West Nile Virus nanobug to start showing up. This nanobug was first detected in the Western Hemisphere in 1999 and has spread rapidly across North America since then. Mosquitoes carry the West Nile Virus to humans from infected birds. So...
E. coli O157 is in the news again! Today reports of possible contamination of ground beef processed in April in California and sold in 11 western states. Most likely the product has been consumed by now but might still be frozen and available for consumption....
Nanobugs are cartoon microbes that entertain and educate people about practical microbiology. They are the unique combination science and our imagination. The Nanobugs characters represent bacteria, viruses and fungi (microbes). The bacteria and fungi Nanobugs are “morphologically correct”. That means the characters are shaped as...