S5 E10: Food Infections and Food Intoxication: The Season Finale

0:01 I really do a number on my skin. Labs are horrible environments. They can be dry or overly humid, hot or really cold. And if you're working in a biolab, you take a shower every day, and sometimes if you're moving in and out of those labs, you're taking two or three showers a day. Then there are the things that we all do. We all expose ourselves to weather toxins in the air, and of course we age. We can't avoid it, but there's something we can all do about it. I've started using the anti line from a company called Codex. Your skin is the barrier between you and the outside world, and if it's not healthy, you can find yourself with problems like psoriasis, chopping, and the dreaded zits.

0:52 Codex helps replace the nutrients that we all lose in our everyday exposure. By combining Chilean matchup, tribal knowledge, and modern biotechnology, Codex has created a line of skincare products that have restored my skin tone and have reduced some of the fine lines on my face and the dark circles under my eyes. These products aren't heavy or greasy either. They feel natural, so I don't mind adding them into my skincare routine. Codex is offering twenty percent off any of their products for those who visit www. Codex Labscorp dot com and use promo code cause of Death twenty at checkout. Go to the website and look at the research they've done. It's amazing. They'll make it really easy to find products that match your skin type. I love the anti line. Not only have I noticed changes in my own skin, but others have two.

1:53 Go visit Wwwcodexlabscorp dot com and check out their products, then use promo code cause of Death twenty at checkout for twenty percent off your order. A good skincare routine cannot only help keep that barrier healthy, but it can also boost your confidence. Go to Codex and experience the difference that great skincare can make. In August of nineteen eighty, Carold Bundy confess her connection to the Sunset Strip slayer, who had been terrorizing Los Angelenos all summer. In September of twenty twelve, the coal of the Unification Church, also known as the Mooneys, mourn the death of their leader Sun Young Moon. Tune into Murder Murder News every Friday to hear us detangle another twisted tail from true crime history.

2:46 If you're an amateur sleuth who hopes to someday solve a cold case or locate a missing person, tune into Murder Murder News and start off your search with a deep dive into some fascinating and very solvable cases. We always taken victim first stance and like to focus on crimes affecting marginalized communities which typically don't get enough media attention. Subscribe to Murder Murder News wherever you get your podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. Hi, this is Molly and Cody, the host of Over the Fence true crime podcasts. Please join us as we talk about true crime in the most normal place in the world, Over the Fence, to be specific, over our backyard fence. We're both moms of humans and of dogs. We live directly next door to each other and share many conversations about life and family, but mostly true crime over our backyard fence, and we invite you to come learn more about true crime and well us. We give a lot of attention to California true crime, but I've ventured throughout the US and even across the pond. And plan to continue our world domination in the near future. Listen to us wherever you listen to your podcasts, or give us a follow on Instagram at Over the Fence Underscore podcast.

4:03 So grab a drink and talk with us over the Fence. I have a real problem with artificial sweeteners. I get headaches, I get lethargic, and I get brain fog if I ingest just a little of the stuff. So when fit Aid contacted me about sponsoring Cause of Death one hundred Seconds to Midnight, that was one of the first things I looked into. I was really surprised to see that their products contain no sucralose, no aspartame, and no ace k. I reluctantly agreed to try fit Aid, thinking that they would probably taste terrible, and again I was pleasantly surprised to find that the flavors are amazing mango, sorbet, peach, mandarin, BlackBerry, pineapple, and my absolute favorite, raspberry hibiscus. The clean caffeine from two hundred mill grounds of green tea extract keep me from getting the post coffee jitters too, and it doesn't bother my stomach like soda does. I recently started working at again and the bcaa's glucosamine electrolytes, turmeric, OMEGA three's and vitamins B C, D three and E really help with recovery from an intense pilates session.

5:24 If you'd like to try fit aid, I have a deal for you. You can get forty percent off your first order of twenty four cans delivered right to your door, plus free shipping. Just go to www drink fita dot com slash cause of death Again. That's www. Drink fita dot com slash cause of Death for forty percent off your first order of twenty four cans of fit aid. Darkcast Network. Come on over to the dark Side. We're really nice people once you get past the true crime and scary science. Hello and welcome to Cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight. I'm your host, Jackie Moranti. In season five, I've talked about several food born illnesses and intoxications. At this point, I felt I should explain the difference between the two. This is going to be a rather short episode, but it's a topic worth talking about before we move on. There are three methods of food born illness intoxification, intoxication and infection, and the difference between them is fairly stark. Food born infections are caused by live bacteria or pathogens that,

6:55 when ingested, begin to grow in the intestinal tract. The most common of these are neurovirus and salmonella. Food born intoxication is caused by eating food that contains toxins that are released by the pathogens. The pathogens themselves don't cause illness, but the illness begins as the toxins begin to germinate. The most common of these types is botulism. Food born intoxification occurs when live bacterial cells are ingested, then the bacteria produces a toxin that causes illness. The most common of these types is Clostridium perfringens. I'm obviously not done with food born illnesses, so we'll get to see perfringens. So much disease and so little time.

7:50 So are we clear as mud? So far good. It seems like the phrase food poisoning gets kicked around quite a bit, and that term can be used for all of the food born illnesses. It depends on which health registry is issuing the alert, even if it's not quite correct. They may call any one of these food poisoning. It doesn't really matter what you call it, you're gonna get sick. Food born illnesses outnumber any other type of food contamination, and this makes it the leading safety concern around the world. Almost every single person in the world experiences a food born illness at least once a year, and most people think that they have the stomach flu or the twenty four hour flu. There is no such thing as stomach flu and any flu you get is going to last a lot longer than twenty four hours.

8:48 It's food poisoning. Now that being said, most of the time, people are miserable for a couple of days. Most patients experience vomiting, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and then suddenly it's gone. They feel fine again. About six point five million cases of food poisoning are reported each year in the US. This number doesn't even closely represent the actual number of cases that occur. Of those reported, about nine thousand cases and in death. That's not a very high morbidity rate, but people do die. Most commonly they die of dehydration due to loss of fluids. The morbidity rate is far higher in the developing world than in any industrialized country. Especially among children and the elderly.

9:37 Of course, children under the age of five years, the elderly, and those who are immunocompromised are more likely to become severely ill, and those populations have the highest morbidity rate in any country. There is a website available through the FDA called Food Safety dot gov. This website lists all the res recalls on any food item in the US, and it also gives the reasons why the item has been recalled. There are a couple of side notes here say that there has been a recall on peanut butter because salmonella has been reported as connected to that brand. The company is going to recall several lots of the product. They're going to start with the target lot and then take a few lots before and a few lots after. This is a safety precaution. My friend Claire called me one day and said that she had some peanut butter that had just been recalled. She checked the lot number and sure enough, it matched one of the lots on the list. But she had a problem.

10:43 That peanut butter had been in her possession for quite a while and she had eaten almost all of it. She hadn't gotten sick, so she was wondering if she should take it back. Well, this is when I had to explain the recall process. Of course, the peanut butter is almost gone and you've eaten it and you haven't gotten sick, Well, it's a little late to take it back. You probably got one of the lots that was either before or after the lot that had the semonella detection. Most companies believe that they're better to be safe than sorry. There is a financial liability involved, but also there are ethics. They don't want to be responsible for anyone getting sick. The morbidity rate is low with most food borne infections, but it's never zero. The second thing I want to mention is that recalls happen for more than just bacterial or viral threats. There have been several recalls because the product may have been exposed to some allergen that was unknown at the time, such as meat being ground in the same grinder that peanuts just went through, or a recipe that was labeled as gluten free may have somehow been contaminated with wheat. There have been several label mishaps in recent years. It's unfortunate, but if the food has been mislabeled for anything, it's usually thrown out.

12:09 It can't be sold with that label, and relabeling isn't always possible. These things are rare, but they do happen. It's a good thing that they're rare, because I'd be opening a store for mislabeled food, sell it at a discount, give it to a food bank, do something. I'll be talking about how many resources are wasted due to things like this in an upcoming episode. Anyway, this website is quite handy. It gives plenty of advice on avoiding food borne pathogens. Let's talk about some of the things we can do to keep pathogens out of our stomachs and our intestines. Restaurants are notorious for piling on the food, and I don't like to see food go to waste, so I get a doggie bag my dog. Usually it didn't get any of it, though. Most of the time, I can order one meal and it'll last for at least two or three days. The CDC suggests that if you do decide to bring your leftovers home, you should follow some simple guidelines for food safety. If you're going to extend your day beyond the meal, say, going to a movie afterward, then leave the leftovers behind.

13:22 It's not good to leave them sitting in the car for an extended period. When you do bring them home, put them in the fridge immediately, don't wait. Meat and poultry can sit in the fridge for about four days, and eggs and lunch meats will stay good for about five days. Cooked meat and poultry can be stored in the freezer for about two to six months. If you reheat your leftovers but don't finish them all, put them back in the refrigerator right away so they can be reheated again when you're ready to eat them. Now. I hate reheating anything in the microwave, but what's a mother to do. It's quick and easy, and usually I'm just hungry.

14:05 When you do reheat food in the microwave, put it in a microwave safe container, spread the food evenly on the plate, then stir the food halfway through to avoid cold spots. I never do any of this. I pile the food on the plate, put it in the microwave, guess at a time, then go off and do something else until the thing tells me it's done. And I always have cold spots. Never reheat anything in a slow cooker. The food could be sitting in that temperature danger zone between forty degrees and one hundred and forty degrees for far too long. Bacteria love that zone. They grow well in that environment. Food should be heated to the correct temperature according to the guidelines suggested by the FDA. The Food Safety dot Gov website as a table that will tell you the proper heating temperature for a variety of foods. Invest in a food thermometer. Your crystal ball is not going to work for this. Soups, sauces, and gravies should be reheated to a boil. And the final word is when in doubt, throw it out. Don't taste it to see if it's still good. We're going to take a quick break to hear from our sponsors. Then we'll talk about food delivery. Are you a true crime advocate? Are you passionate about uncovering the

15:37 truth and bringing justice to victims. Do you love the paranormal and spooky tales, Then you don't want to miss the True Crime and Paranormal Podcast Festival in Austin, Texas. It'll be going on from August twenty fifth to the twenty seventh in twenty twenty three. This festival features panel discussions, were shops, live podcasts, all focusing on ethics and advocacy in the true crime sphere. Get your tickets now at www dot Truecrime Podcast Festival dot com and join us in Austin for an unforgettable experience. Don't miss out on the chance to connect with other advocates and take your passion for truecrime and paranormal to the next level.

16:25 Use Code Consequences at check out for fifteen percent off the ticket price. That's Truecrime Podcast Festival dot Com with promo Code Consequences at checkout for fifteen percent off the ticket price. Special guests will include Julie Murray, Teranewell, and Call your Landry to name a few. I'll be there representing another podcast that I'm involved with, True Consequences. Come by and meet Eric Carter, Landein and I. We would love to meet you. I recently to doing a twenty eight day wall Pilates workout challenge, and after two years of doing nothing more than running to the door to get my door dash, I was feeling it all over. Then I found fit Aid. Fit Aid gives me a little boost anytime I need it and helps with post workout recovery. The blend of vitamins B complex, C, D three and E plus bcaa's turmeric and electrolytes are just what I need, not only to get through today's workout, but to be energized enough to do it again tomorrow. As a bonus, fit aid Energy contains two hundred milligrams of clean caffeine from green tea extract, not the synthetic caffeine derived from urea. There's no aspartame, sucralose, or ace k. It's always naturally sweetened and comes in four great flavors mango,

17:56 sorbet, BlackBerry, pineapple, mandarin, and my absolute favorite, raspberry hibiscus. Visit www drink fita dot com slash cause of death to get forty percent off plus free shipping on your first order of twenty four cans of fit aid Energy today. That's www. Drink fita dot com slash cause of death for forty percent off and free shipping on your first order of fit aid Energy. Meal kits and food delivery have been really popular since the lockdowns of twenty twenty, and these things are great. They're super convenient, and for people who are single like me, these things keep us from making a ton of food that will just go bad when we get sick of eating the same thing over and over again. And that these things also keep us from that uncomfortable table for one restaurant setting. Let's talk about it for a minute. Shipped food, it can be tricky. It's best to do a little research before you decide which company to go with. Call or email the company directly to see how they handle their deliveries. Ask them if they give shipping instructions to the shipping company. Ask what happens if the food is delivered at an unsafe temperature.

19:18 Ask them if they send directions for safe handling to you. It's important that food deliveries don't just hang out on your porch all day while you're at work. This is just begging for one disaster or another. Besides bacterial growth, there are other hungry things out there, bugs, parasites, and the neighbor's dog. Arrange to have food delivered on days when you're going to be home, or see if one of your neighbors can keep the delivery until you get home. It needs to go directly into the fridge or freezer, no waiting. If there's no one around. The FDA suggests that you have the delivery driver with them in a cool, shady area that's rodent free. My suggestion is to check into having them delivered to Walgreens. Some Walgreen stores accept FedEx deliveries for pickup. Even if they can't put the food in the fridge for you, they at least have air conditioning and a vermin free environment.

20:21 Make sure that the food is at a safe temperature when you unpack the box. If it needs to be refrigerated, it should arrive around forty degrees fahrenheit. If it's supposed to be frozen, it should still be frozen, or at the very least have ice crystal still visible in the packaging. Make sure that packaging is still intact. If it was packed in gel packs, they should be cold or frozen. If it was packed in dry ice, that should still be in the box. If that evaporates, then the food is probably not good. Even if perishable products are smoked, cured, vacuum packed, or fully cooked, they still need to be shipped and stored cold.

21:06 Again. If the food arrives at a temperature that's above forty degrees fahrenheit. Don't taste it, just throw it out and call the company and ask for a refund or a new shipment. If the company is reputable, they're happy to do this for you. When in doubt, throw it out. These rules also apply to fresh pet food. Dogs and cats get food born diseases as well as humans. Okay, here's my guilty pleasure. I live for restaurant delivery. I hate eating and restaurants alone, so I order from my favorite places online. There are rules for this also. One of my favorites is to check the grade of the restaurant to see where they stand with a local health department. These reports are readily available, and they'll tell me whether I want to eat at that restaurant. Ever, a restaurant with consistently low grades gets a pass, no matter how great their menu looks. Be aware of delivery times. Don't leave your takeout sitting on the porch for even a few minutes. The FDA says that it can sit out for an hour, but anything can happen in an hour. Remember the neighbor's dog. Eat that food right away or put it in the fridge for later. Don't leave it sitting on the counter. If you don't finish all your leftovers, date them and keep them in the fridge. They only last a few days, though,

22:37 Avoid science experiments when you come back a month later to something green and furry and ask what was that and where did it come from. If you do find a science experiment, throw out the whole container. You're never going to get the mold out to stew it. It's fine if you know you're not going to eat the leftovers in a few days. They can be frozen. They'll last a lot longer in the freezer. One more thing I want to mention. Most people are really bad when it comes to handling food at home, so let's talk about it. Always wash your hands before, during, and after preparing any meal. Hot soapy water goes a long way to keeping yourself safe from a myriad of food born infections. Wash your hands for at least twenty seconds. Sing Happy Birthday twice while you're waiting, and that will get you to that time limit, and just a little over if you sing like Marilyn Monroe. Wash your dishes as you go too. Don't use the same dirty dishes over and over, and don't let them pile up in the sink. And here's one that almost no one does. Wash all fruits and vegetables before you cut into them, all of them, not just the ones without skin wash bananas, pineapples, watermelons, and cantaloat Here's why.

24:10 If you cut in two a will let's say watermelon without washing the outside, and that watermelon has listeria growing on the skin, then when you cut into it, you drag the listeria inside to the fruit. Most bacteria thrive on sugar, so they'll grow quite nicely when the leftover watermelon is hanging out waiting to be eaten. I have a story about this, but the whole story is going to be told when I talk about listeria in the one Hit Wonder season. Separate all foods to avoid cross contamination. Keep raw meat, poultry, seafood, and eggs away from other foods. Don't use the same cutting board and utensils for meat that you're going to use for vegetables, especially if those vegetables are eaten raw. Of course, use your food thermometer to ensure that food is cooked to the proper temperature. Don't forget that chart on Food safety dot Com. It is really helpful. It's very important to report any food born illness to the local health department, especially if you think that you got sick from restaurant food. Let them know what you ordered and the symptoms that you're experiencing. Asked to speak with an environmental health specialist or a sanitarian about the problem. Food born illnesses go unreported quite often, and there have been instances when early reporting could have saved lives. We have yet to talk

25:45 about the first E Coli O one F seven H seven outbreak or the hepatitis A outbreaks that are so common. Right now, let's do some top fives. Let's start with a top five food infections that are most likely to cause illness. In order of appearance, they are norovirus, nontyphoidal salmonella, Clostridium, perfringens, campolobacter, and staff arius. The top five illnesses to cause hospitalization are nontyphoidal salmonella, norovirus, campiliobacter, Toxoplasma gondii, and E.

26:32 Coli one five seven AGE seven. Are you seeing a trend, Let's do one more. The top five diseases to cause death are nontyphoidal salmonella, Toxoplasma gondii, listerio monocytogenes, norovirus, and campiliobacter. So if we look at the trends, norovirus, campy, and salmonella sit at the top five of the things that are most likely to not only make you sick, but make you sick and die. And as I mentioned in the episode on campy, it's quite often mistaken for something else, so sometimes it goes undetected until the patient is receiving treatment. The burden of food born illness is one of those unknowns, since many infections go untreated and unreported. WHO estimates that more than six hundred million cases of foodborn illness and four hundred and twenty thousand deaths occur each year worldwide. The burden disproportionately falls on the more vulnerable populations, since those populations are more likely to report their illnesses. In low and middle income countries, the burden falls mostly on children under the age of five. In twenty nineteen World Bank report concluded that the economic burden of food born diseases indicated

28:06 that the total productivity losses associated with these diseases in low and middle income countries were around ninety five point two billion dollars per year. The annual cost of treating food born illnesses is estimated at fifteen billion dollars per year. This gives you an idea of how much it costs to treat people who are infected with a relatively benign disease. I'll be talking about the economic burden of disease in a future episode. Over the last twenty years or so, as global markets, food delivery, and eating out has become more popular, it's become more and more challenging to keep our food chains safe. Okay, so that's our look at food born and toxication and food borne illness. It's a short one this time, but I'm gearing up for my podversary episode. It's something that I call the Great dilemma. I think about a lot of things before I put an episode out. I try to look at every problem from as many angles as I possibly can, and I try to find solutions that makes sense.

29:22 The Great Dilemma keeps me up at night. That one will kick off season six. Who's Who at Side of the Zoo. If you'd like to support cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight, there are several ways you can do so. Head over to Apple Podcasts and subscribe so you can get bonus content as well as AD free episodes. You can also go to my Patreon page, where you can subscribe for as little as a dollar a month. At that dollar level, you'll get AD free episodes. At the five dollar level you get bonus content and AD free episodes and so on. All of my Patreon subscribers get stickers and a shout out on the show. Higher levels get things like coffee cups and T shirts. Be sure that if you subscribe over there, you leave your mailing address so I can send you goodies.

30:15 I want to thank all of my new Apple subscribers this month. You know who you are. I'd also like to thank my Patreon subscribers for their continued support. You can take a look at the show notes for other ways you can support the show monetarily. I'm also sponsored by some fantastic products, so while you're looking at the show notes for white papers, wink wink, give them a look as well. Of course, the best way to help this show out doesn't cost anything. All I ask is that you leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, then subscribe and tell all your friends about the show. I always encourage you to contact me on the website at ww cause of Death one hundred sex dot net or at my email address at Jackie at cause of Death one hundred sex dot net. I love listener letters, and if there's some good discussion, I'll read you a letter on the show. You're not the only one asking the questions. Follow me on all the socials Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and if you can't get enough of my dog TikTok, where she is the face of Cause of Death one hundred seconds to midnight until next time. I avoid eating out of dented cans and cook your food to the recommended temperature. I'll see you in two weeks.