Poison on the Plate

Checking up on 1952's crop of food-poisoning cases, the U.S. Public Health Service reported last week that trouble might be found in anything from egg powder to bear meat, but that it usually results from the flouting of two basic rules: 1) food handlers should have clean hands, and 2) there must be no delay in properly storing food. Said Dr. Carl C. Dauer in Public Health Reports: "Food stored promptly in an inexpensive icebox is less likely to spoil than food placed in the most elaborate refrigerator after a few hours' exposure at room temperature."

Surprisingly, milk was indicated as the carrier of disease in only three outbreaks throughout the U.S., and only three minor cases were traced to milk products: one each to cheese, ice cream and eggnog. Still more surprising, only one outbreak (66 cases) involved shellfish. Otherwise, the old standbys in the spoilage and upset-stomach routine were to blame: cream-filled pastries, ham, turkey, chicken and tuna fish salad.

An egg powder for infants gave P.H.S. its biggest detective job. The first case of dysentery showed up in the District of Columbia. Then came reports from New York City. Eventually, more than 50 cases in 16 states were proved, all traceable to egg powder from a single manufacturer. Within the month, the disease detectives clinched their case and yanked the whole lot off the market.

As in every year, there were cases of trichinosis from eating undercooked pork, but 1952 supplied an oddity: there was one outbreak involving seven persons who had eaten bear meat. Somebody had made the mistake of keeping the meat in ordinary cold storage (which is not cold enough to kill the larvae of the worms) for ten days.

Botulism, the deadliest of all food poisonings, was reported only twice, but it killed four of its five victims. Since the bacteria which secrete botulin can thrive only when they are carelessly sealed in a nourishing medium without air, botulism nowadays is associated with home canning. In California, two victims ate home-canned mushrooms; in Oregon, two ate home-canned beets. They would have been all right if they had reboiled the food.

No less than 81 cases of streptococcal sore throat were found among patrons of a college dining room, and were traced to the least excusable source: pus draining from the wound of a cook who had cut his thumb.

Last week, after eating lunch at Brooklyn's Ocean Parkway Jewish Center Day Camp, 125 youngsters, 20 counselors and three bus drivers began to keel over like tenpins. More than 100, aged eight to twelve, went to hospitals, and 37 stayed overnight, but all recovered quickly. Suspected cause of food poisoning: mayonnaise in an egg salad, served when the temperature was heading for the mid-90s.

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