Insights \ Health Hits

It's hard to miss news about the recent E. coli outbreak in Europe. Even at the beach, where I was on vacation and trying ignore things like the news, I heard about the widespread illness and death from an as yet unnamed source.

But even as food scientists investigate everything from Spanish cucumbers to Bavarian bean sprouts, there's another bug on the minds of food safety experts in the United States: Salmonella.

Salmonella is directly responsible for an estimated $365 million in medical costs each year in this country--and infections from salmonella, which contaminates meats, eggs, produce and even processed foods, are on the rise. A Centers for Disease Control report released this week says salmonella infections have increased by 10 percent in recent years.

"Although foodborne infections have decreased by nearly one-fourth in the past 15 years, more than 1 million people in this country become ill from Salmonella each year, and Salmonella accounts for about half of the hospitalizations and deaths among the nine foodborne illnesses CDC tracks," said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H.

Since summer is a busy time for food poisonings, here are some simple tips you can follow to reduce your chance of getting sick:

• Wash your hands;
• Clean food prep surfaces like cutting boards in between preparing veggies and meats;
• Don't reuse plates that have had raw meat on them without cleaning;
• Cook food thoroughly and refrigerate or freeze food promptly;
• Store meat and veggies separately in the fridge;
• Skip foods made with raw eggs.

Sound familiar to you? Take our quiz and find out if you know everything you need to know about food safety.